BT (UK) announces plans for higher speed Broadband nationwide

bealtine

http://www.btplc.com/News/Articles/Showarticle.cfm?ArticleID=79c4f477-2d4e-41b0-af6a-61be68a01ba3

and for those on dialup...
BT announces plans for higher speed Broadband nationwide

BT today announced the next trial phase for its ADSL broadband Max service, which will deliver downstream line speeds of up to 8 Mbit/s. Commencing at the end of November, the trial will lay the foundation for the intended commercial launch of higher speed broadband services across the UK by Spring 2006.


Cameron Rejali, managing director, products and strategy, BT Wholesale said: “The market trial represents a significant step forward in the development of our higher speed broadband products. Our highly successful technical trials generated positive feedback and high demand from both service providers and end-customers involved in the trial.


“This trial phase is essential to ensure our higher speed broadband products and systems meet the reliability standards that service providers and end users expect. This testing is essential given BT intends to roll out services of up to 8Mb across the whole of the UK. BT is committed to ensuring that everyone benefits from the broadband revolution whether they live in valleys, villages or city centres.”


Higher speed broadband services will allow people to run more bandwidth hungry applications, including video, gaming and music downloads at the same time, as well as email and surfing the web.


Following successful technical trials of the service in London and the Strathclyde region of Scotland, the wider market trial phase will include an initial 25 exchanges, rising to 53 exchanges as the trial progresses. The selected trial exchanges will be located in Greater London, Cornwall, Strathclyde, Northern Ireland and South Glamorgan.


The higher speed broadband trial will initially be available to 50,000 end users. Depending on the successful progress of the trial, BT aims to extend the availability of the trial to up to 150,000 end users, which could see additional trial exchanges enabled for higher speed broadband.


The trial will allow participating service providers to offer end-customers the fastest broadband service their line can reliably support with rate-adaptive downstream line speeds of up to 8 Mbit/s. BT intends to provide these services
nationwide from all broadband enabled exchanges in the UK following the successful conclusion of the trials.


The market trial will apply to BT Wholesale’s BT Datastream service and BT IPstream service, provided the customer is on either capacity or usage based charging. The purpose of the market trial is to allow BT Wholesale and participating service providers to understand the technical stability of ADSL Max lines and become familiarised with the ordering, billing and service aspects of the service prior to commercial launch.


Service providers will shortly be invited by BT Wholesale to formally take part in the trial. Individual customer lines for the trial will be selected by service providers and the standard procedure for ordering ADSL broadband services from BT Wholesale will apply.


Higher speed broadband from BT Wholesale will deliver greater control and flexibility to service providers which will allow them to differentiate their products to reduce customer churn and attract new broadband subscribers.



Notes to editors



1. The 25 initial trial exchanges are:

Strathclyde
Connel
Dalmally
East Kilbride
Glasgow
Cambuslang
Greengairs
Helensburgh
Kimarnock
Langside
Lochgoilhead
Ochiltree


Northern Ireland
Bangor Belfast Balmoral
Belfast City


South Glamorgan
Llandaff
Llanishen
Radyr Glam Rhoose









Greater London
Chiswick
Earls Court
Harlesden
Harrow
Kensington Gardens
South Kensington
West Kensington


Cornwall
St Ives





Trial name*See note 2.


Upstream line speed range
(Rate adaptive)


Downstream line speed range
(Rate adaptive) *See note 3.

BT Datastream Home Max


64Kbit/s - 448Kbit/s


288Kbit/s – 8128Mbit/s

BT Datastream Office Max


64Kbit/s - 832Kbit/s


288Kbit/s – 8128Mbit/s

BT IPstream Home Max


64Kbit/s - 448Kbit/s


288Kbit/s – 8128Mbit/s

BT IPstream Office Max


64Kbit/s - 832Kbit/s


288Kbit/s – 8128Mbit/s



2. These product names may be subject to change for any launched service.

3. The speeds in the table are indicative of the actual ADSL line code rate.

4. BT expects that BT Datastream Office Max and BT IPstream Home Max will be available from the start of the trial, with BT Datastream Home Max and BT IPstream Office Max being introduced later in the trial.

5. While existing ADSL technology will be used to provide rate-adaptive downstream line speeds ranging from 288 Kbit/s to 8 Mbit/s, BT Wholesale is currently conducting internal technical trials using ADSL2 + technology as well as evaluating VDSL technology and aims to deliver downstream speeds of up to 24 Mbit/s +. BT Wholesale aims to announce its plans to conduct wider tests for ADSL2+ and VDSL in 2006.

dahamsta

It really pisses me off that every time we roll out "new and improved" services, real new and improved services are being rolled out just a couple hundred miles away, and innovative new and improved services are being rolled out in places like Korea...

BT gears up for 'max' broadband

BT is extending a trial of its faster broadband service to prepare for its roll-out across the UK next spring.

The trial starts next month and will help prepare the so-called "Max" service, which offers speeds of up to 8Mbps (megabits per second).
BT's broadband network currently offers download speeds of up to 2Mbps.

The telecoms giant is lagging behind some of its rivals which have already started offering much faster connection speeds of up 24Mbps.

[...]

(What really pissed me off is that if it hadn't been for a chance visit to ADSLGuide the other day, I woudn't have even known what MaxDSL is.)

jwt

It gets even better.

"BT is looking to wire up remote areas with broadband services by blowing fibre optic cables between existing telephone poles."

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/10/14/bt_air/

John

Blaster99

For all BT's talk though, they currently only offer 2Mbps download speeds. Which has to be one of the worst top speeds in the world.

Sponge Bob

bealtine wrote:

BT Datastream Home Max

64Kbit/s - 448Kbit/s (mins)

288Kbit/s – 8128Mbit/s (maxes)

BT IPstream Home Max

64Kbit/s - 448Kbit/s (mins)

288Kbit/s – 8128Mbit/s (maxes)

The minimum downstream will be 448k

BT say that they can deliver MINIMUM 448k out to 10 KM while our shower of morons can deliver MINIMUM 256k ....and is the distance still 4.5km ?? ( I have heard 5.5km from anecdotal sources but officially its 4.5km )

The reason I left 2 packages in the quote up there is that BT can deliver one over existing 'old' ADSL gear and the other will be delivered over ADSL2+ once installed so they will use the same standards as Eircom at present to deliver 488k min at 10KM and will introduce ADSL2+ during the trial period .....but will not bump the speeds as they so do . Despite having an ADSL and an ADSL2 variant of the 'same' package now they reserve the right to deploy new packages over ADSL2+ where it has been installed if they see the need or if they see the competition from BE and Nildram and them LLU lads hotting up .

There are strong rumours doing the rounds in Ireland (after Dr Phil said something recently ) that Eircom are considering launching a 4mbit home package later this year and that 256k up is possible too .

No mods to min speeds or service distances are being considered I understand although 5.5km may be formalised .....but not 10km .

Cryos

Blaster99 wrote:

For all BT's talk though, they currently only offer 2Mbps download speeds. Which has to be one of the worst top speeds in the world.

However blaster99 you fail to point out the high availability of that 2Mbps Serivce, in comparison to us we dont have anything in the same sort of availability range... oh wait we do ISDN........

Sponge Bob

Kinda dovetails with what I said Blitz.

Once BT roll this rate adaptive (up to) 8Mbit base standard out fully across the UK then the UK will have over 99% population availibility of DSL at a minimum speed of 448k down -64k up even if you are 6 miles from the exchange .

Ireland will have nothing of the sort . 450 exchanges out of some 1200 will have some form of DSL available out to 4.5km , with the old ( pi x R2) calculation thats 450 x 4.5km x 4.5km or about 9200 km2 of coverage in a country of 70,000 km2 , less than 15% coverage.

Were they BT exchanges the coverage would be 450 x 10 x 10 or 45000 km2 . BT would manage over 60% coverage with the same technology that Eircom uses and would provide a higher minimum speed at a considerably greater distance .

The only technological difference really is the copper, theirs (UK) is in good condition and professionally maintained at the behest of a professional regulator (Ofcom) while ours is complete decrepit sh1te as is the regulator, Comreg, that believes that 94% is Universal in some weird retarded way .

bealtine

Sponge Bob wrote:

The minimum downstream will be 448k

BT say that they can deliver MINIMUM 448k out to 10 KM while our shower of morons can deliver MINIMUM 256k ....and is the distance still 4.5km ?? ( I have heard 5.5km from anecdotal sources but officially its 4.5km )

No mods to min speeds or service distances are being considered I understand although 5.5km may be formalised .....but not 10km .

There can only be one possible reason for eircom's reticence
on opening out the range to 10km like in the UK...crap cables.
Forget all the excuses that is the bottom line and until that
issue is dealt with we will live in this "line failure catch-22".
Perhaps more clarity on the measurement criteria is required.

And even at 4.5km, which is measured on the Upstream portion
of the cable, not distance from the exchange.
You could be right beside the exchange and the cables do not
qualify...because they are crap...

I know BT went through a phase of putting in aluminium cables
but afaik nearly all those cables have been replaced at this stage
and is now considered to have been a massive mistake.

Sponge Bob

aluminium cable was installed in the 1960s in Milton Keynes ....notably ... but was not put in since, most eircom cable was installed in the 1980s and is all copper and still crap.

BlueShaun

Blaster99 wrote:

For all BT's talk though, they currently only offer 2Mbps download speeds. Which has to be one of the worst top speeds in the world.

Their coverage is the impressive part.

I suspect where I currently live wont have broadband until post 2010, despite being only 150 metres (give or take ) from the exchange.

o/t
I for one would be glad of 2mbit when I move to oxford next month. A year of this 56k nonsense was sickening.

Blaster99

There are a couple of LLU providers in the UK that do ADSL2+ and decent speeds, so all is not lost. I just don't understand why BT doesn't offer higher speeds. It's a no-brainer after all.

Sponge Bob

Its in the original post if you reread it , they are only starting their ADSL2+ rollout now which will allow speeds in the 8mbit - 24Mbit range, typically .

8mbits down is the max speed for ADSL (or ADSL1 if you will) which is what Eircom and BT have deployed so far.

Cryos

Blaster99 wrote:

There are a couple of LLU providers in the UK that do ADSL2+ and decent speeds, so all is not lost. I just don't understand why BT doesn't offer higher speeds. It's a no-brainer after all.

You have neglected to mention that rolling out the new technology nationwide in a country the size of the uk cannot be done over night; it takes much longer and at a greater expence, smaller companys can afford to do it cos they are in their own patch and probably have no nationwide deployment plans

ro2

From yesterdays Times:

Super-fast broadband finds movies at touch of button
By Richard Barry

Latest high-speed networks are set to change viewing habits by making online TV and movie libraries instantly accessible, writes Richard Barry

Think your internet broadband access is quick now? Think again. This time next year, it will be so fast it might just change the way you watch TV.

Ireland's internet users are about to get a wake-up call by joining Sweden and the UK in embracing the latest high-speed broadband.

While we are still plodding around at 1 to 3MB speeds, England's latest craze is 24MB broadband which it inherited from the Swedes, who have been using 26MB broadband for more than two years. The good news is that it's coming to Dublin next year.

Broadband speeds of 24MB is what the combustion engine was to trains. It's like Mach speed has finally gone online and the benefits for broadband users may represent a major leap in what we can expect to do with our televisions and computers.

Because it's so fast, 24MB broadband can put movies and programmes into your living room at the touch of a button and because this is digital content, you get to do a lot more with it than just watching it.

At a broadband conference in Madrid last week, a showcase was made for a group of people - all in different parts of the world - getting together over the internet to watch Chelsea play Arsenal in a super-sized conference call. They all watched the same TV, but because they were digitally linked over a super-fast network, they could text and talk to one another at the same time, using just their TVs.

Users can also download any of the thousands of movies or programmes online without waiting for them to arrive. It will all be at the touch of a button. The man driving this digital utopia is Boris Ivanovich, director of broadband ISP Be, which launched 24MB broadband in the UK in September.

"Soon, you will be able to watch TV programmes or movies when you want over broadband, because online libraries with literally thousands of hours of entertainment will be available to give you exactly what you want, on demand," says Ivanovich.

And he should know. Be's success has the Swedes demanding faster access. He reckons that speed is driving the development of new services that will be equally as important to how we watch the TV, just as ordinary broadband has been to how we listen and buy music.

He explains: "It is the beginning of the end for TV as we know it.

"Broadband at 24MB speed provides instant access to movies to either download or stream to your TV or PC. You also get to choose from a bigger range than any rental store can offer 30,000 plus movies all in online libraries It happened to music with iTunes."

Ivanovich may be bullish, but he's right to point to iTunes. Apple effectively dragged the music industry into the 21st century when it coupled its ubiquitous iPod with the iTunes software, proving that people are willing to shop for music online. ITunes sold 70 million tracks in its first year and expects to double that figure this year.

Ovum analyst John Delaney agrees that super-fast broadband has the ability to change what he terms "traditional viewing habits", but doesn't think that it will happen in a hurry.

"Everyone has a TV but not everyone has, or wants, broadband." Delaney believes that people may start using their broadband services to watch TV without actually realising it.

"In Hong Kong, there is a growing trend to watch TV through broadband connections rather than traditional means."

According to David McRedmond, Eircom's commercial director, the company "is currently testing the type of technology that can offer these speeds. What gets me excited though, is the potential to make things simpler, not just faster. Converged voice for example is very exciting."

Converged voice means combining all your telephone services into one single service. So, no more mobile plus landline, broadband will be able to do both, although McRedmond admits that the "one phone" scenario "is a fair bit off yet".

Ivanovich says that trials with 24MB broadband could start in Dublin before next summer.

"It is inevitable because of what happened with music," he says.

"People wanted to get their music online and they want to do the same with movies and programmes, so it makes sense that the makers of this entertainment will figure out how to do that."

In the US, it is already happening, with more people watching music videos over AOL than on MTV. Yahoo! is also beefing up its broadband ability with Project Lightspeed, which will provide video on-demand as well as instant messaging, photo collections and music.

What is clear from all this super-fast surfing is that the lowly TV is about to change dramatically. Companies are already lining up to provide programmes and movies that you download, rather than tune into.

It looks like Ireland will be riding the crest of that wave and taking part in a race to give the consumer exactly what they want, when they want it.

DonegalMan

bealtine wrote:

The selected trial exchanges will be located in ... Northern Ireland ...

Waaaaaaaaahhhh - I wanna go home

Blaster99

Sponge Bob wrote:

Its in the original post if you reread it , they are only starting their ADSL2+ rollout now which will allow speeds in the 8mbit - 24Mbit range, typically .

8mbits down is the max speed for ADSL (or ADSL1 if you will) which is what Eircom and BT have deployed so far.

Very good, and Eircom can offer 4Mbps with that technology. BT has managed 2Mbps.

Eircom are rolling out ADSL2+ as well, so no great shakes there. BT's achievement is availability but if I lived in the UK I would be hitting my head against the wall if I were limited to 2Mbps. That's stone age speeds at this stage and you'd think a country of that calibre could do better. Perhaps ironic that BT's highest ADSL speeds are available in Ireland...

SkepticOne

I think for Eircom the dilemma will be pricing with ADSL2+. I don't think there are any special technical problems.

How much should they charge for, say, 8 meg broadband when they are charging 169 ex VAT for 4 meg?

Should they bring out a special capped version for home users?

Sponge Bob

Blaster99 wrote:

Very good, and Eircom can offer 4Mbps with that technology. BT has managed 2Mbps.

BT has managed to supply something a lot closer to Universal BB provision than our lot who have done 250 exchange installs to date and thats it.

Which would you rather , the British situation where 99% odd of homes can get DSL or the Irish situation where its about 50% in reality .

Blaster99

Both are varying degrees of crap, not sure which is better or worse. I suppose because LLU seems to work better in the UK, that's an advantage. At least the LLU providers in the UK provide speeds that ADSL2+ is capable of, unlike Smart here.

It's possible Eircom will go for pricing that is €170 all you can eat maximum speed possible on your line. Considering that €170 is about three times as much as similar services in other countries, they would still make plenty of money on it.