UK Broadband - BT Finally Begins ADSL2+ Roll Out
Category: InternetPosted: April 30, 2008 12:53PM
Author: jammin
BT, the company which controls and maintains the vast majority of the UK phone network, will start offering its wholesale ADSL2+ broadband products to ISPs starting this week. ADSL2+ allows up to 24Mbps download rates, which is considerably faster than most UK ISPs have previously been able to provide. However some ISPs such as Sky, O2 and Be* have already been providing ADSL2+ services for months now, thanks to LLU (local loop unbundling), which places equipment from ISPs in local exchanges. Only around a million homes will able to access the new services, with BT aiming for a potential of 10 million by the spring of 2009. It is also worth noting that ADSL2+ speeds vary greatly depending on how far a customer's home is from their local exchange (as an example, my own connection achieves around 11Mbps from the potential 24Mbps maximum). The quality of existing telephone lines can have an effect on speeds as well, so this is by no means an exact science. BT have previously been criticised for moving slowly when it comes to network upgrades and this step is unlikely to silence those critics.
