NEWS Companies using two of BT's business broadband services will soon see their connection speed double, without any additional cost to them.
The move, has announced, will affect firms who have signed up for the 512Kbps and 1Mbps versions of the BT Business Broadband Network range. These will now provide connectivity at 1Mbps and 2Mbps respectively.
The upgrades will take place before the end of 2004.
BT says the move will help companies to access its online services, including its security and e-business offerings.
"Companies now need to have more than one computer attached to a network connection and that's exactly what our network products are designed for," said Duncan Ingram, BT Retail's managing director of broadband and Internet services, in a statement.
The move comes at a time when BT is facing increased competition from its rivals. Bulldog has just launched a product that offers a 4Mbps connection with a voice tariff bundled in.
BT is also bringing in a service level guarantee for its Business Broadband Network customers that it hopes will give firms confidence that any faults will be fixed quickly. A BT spokesperson was not immediately available to provide further detail on the service level guarantee process.
While the speed increases will make 1Mbps service the entry-level standard, the 512Kbps product will be retained. It will be offered to companies whose telephone line is of too poor quality to support a 1Mbps link but can cope with a slower service.
Graeme Wearden writes for ZDNet UK
Comments
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1. anonymous
... and presumably those of us who already pay for 2Mb will get a price cut so we pay the same as the people who are paying for 1Mb and will be getting 2Mb?
2. anonymous
With BT involved I suspect they will actually increase the tariff for the ones already on the 2mb service.
It is the 512 service is being replaced so I guess the 1mb service get the price drop.
3. Bob Clark
So much for increased response times. I am actually in the process of downgrading a branch office connection to wires only and looking at switching provider. This as a result of a 5 working day fix time on a BT managed router which went down. Worse still, they wouldnt even assist me putting a temporary fix in place as BT first line do not understand the difference between a dynamic and a fixed IP address! No freebie bandwidth will compensate for such abysmal service.