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BT will roll out copper broadband to 80 per cent of UK
UK TELCO British Telecom (BT) has promised to deliver copper broadband to 80 per cent of the UK by the end of 2011.
BT Wholesale is keen to unbundle broadband over the copper cabling it formerly owned, although that copper doesn't quite push the speed throughput of fibre optic.
If you thought Blighty was already moving over to high speed fibre optic cable, BT wants you to think again. The company reckons it can squeeze up to 20Mbps out of its next generation copper line and is targeting up to 20 million homes and businesses.
Obviously trying to reach the parts of the country its own fibre optic broadband won't reach, BT said the ADSL2+ copper broadband service, dubbed Wholesale Broadband Connect (WBC), is available at 1,000 exchanges. BT wants to add another 90 nodes in what it is calling the "mixed economy" of broadband services. In other words, it has to rely on different broadband technologies because no one technology is available in every part of the UK yet.
For the first time in a long time, BT seems to be hitting promised deadlines with the installation of new services. Last week BT hooked up fibre optic broadband in Cornwall, meeting its target as part of a £132 million pilot project to connect rural Britain.
BT has been installing all manner of broadband services after vowing to keep the Government's pledge to roll out fibre optic lines to two-thirds of the nation by 2015. The company is also making broadband promises after getting a swift kick from Ofcom a few months ago.
BT was forced to open its infrastructure to the competition by Ofcom and now has Virgin Media, Talktalk and other telecom operators snapping at its heels offering similar services. µ
Tags: Hardware
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"BT wants you to think again. The company reckons it can squeeze up to 20Mbps out of its next generation copper line and is targeting up to 20 million homes and businesses".
At a time when some other countries have standardized on 100Mbps over fibre as a minimum bandwith fit to offer their citizens, good old Britain is puffing along miles behind hoping to squeeze out one-fifth of that using obsolete (specifically, 1910-vintage) technology. Thanks, Dave!
What about for those whos homes were built in the 60s during the copper price escalation when the phones lines were cabled in Aluminium?
Aluminium which is now old, degraded, brittle and subject to cracking if disturbed by the slightest bit of urban regeneration?
I've had ADSL2+ with BE since they got going a few years ago. I've never got close to the speed I should get (I'm 1Km's cable length from the exchange but only get 16Mbits on an 'EO' cable). BE have tried to get the best speed they can for me but say they're limited by BT. BT say they've done everything they can and it's physically impossible to get a higher speed. But then last year BT phoned me and said if I switch to BT for my broadband they can garuntee me 22-24Mbits - what a dodgy, snyde company BT is. Why are they wasting time replacing their old aluminium cables with copper when it would be better for everyone if they went straight to fibre - talk about backward.