The A to Z of broadband

BT

It's not surprising BT is the biggest supplier of broadband in the UK - after all it owns most of the cables in the ground through which broadband is delivered to the masses.

It has 8.7 million broadband customers, including the customers of other ISPs that use the BT network, although it didn't do too brilliantly in a recent customer satisfaction survey.

The list from A to Z

Click on the links below to find out more...

A is for ADSL
B is for BT
C is for Cable & Wireless
D is for Dial-up
E is for Education
F is for Fibre
G is for Goonhilly
H is for HSDPA
I is for In-flight
J is for Janet
K is for Kingston
L is for Landlines
M is for Murdoch
N is for Next generation
O is for Ofcom
P is for Power lines
Q is for Quad-play
R is for Remote working
S is for Satellite phones
T is for Trains
U is for Unbundling
V is for VoIP
W is for WiMax
X is for Xbox
Y is for YouTube
Z is for Zombies

The BT Group is made up of five different units: Exact, Global Services, Openreach, Retail and Wholesale.

BT Retail is the customer-facing division of the telco, serving both business and residential customers, and is the prime channel to market for other BT businesses.

BT Wholesale deals with the other communication companies - such as Cable & Wireless - and runs BT's own networks. Openreach, the youngest of the BT family, owns, maintains and develops the access network that links homes and businesses to the networks of the UK's communication providers.

Broadband isn't just for web surfing as far as BT is concerned. In fact, broadband is at the heart of a number of the telco's biggest growth plans.

It's got an IPTV service BT Vision in the works, where you can watch films or TV programmes on demand using the broadband connection.

It has also launched an engineer home-visit service to get its customers up to speed on the net.

Another new venture is BT's Fusion project, which launched in 2005, and enables customers to make mobile calls and fixed line calls, routed through a BT-provided and branded router and over a broadband connection. BT is hoping a move into business with Corporate Fusion will boost the so-far unimpressive take-up.

And even though it already has a big chunk of the market this doesn't mean it isn't looking to grow some more - recently rumours of a potential bid for Tiscali surfaced.