Viatel joins BT shared broadband trials

Business comms provider Viatel is to participate in trials of BT Wholesale's Real Time Quality of Service (QoS) over shared broadband service, in the hope of fast-tracking business relevant comms services such as VoIP and on-demand apps.

Ultimately, the service is intended to cut costs in businesses that cannot risk using contended services, which are currently restricted to more expensive leased line, Ethernet or dedicated broadband services.

"RT QoS removes the effects of contention by adding the ability to dedicate a quantity of bandwidth to specific subscribers or applications. With this service customers will enjoy enhanced management of their networks and will be able to make prioritisation decisions based on key SLA metrics," explained Viatel connectivity and access services product manager, Steve Powell.

Current standards of shared broadband in the UK are unreliable when it comes to delivering speed and latency required for business critical applications, said Powell.

Technical and customer trials should be followed by a full-scale service intoduction during fiscal 2011.