NEWS BT is limbering up to launch a broadband service that would be twice as quick as its fastest consumer service today.
The telco is inviting all existing ADSL broadband customers to sign up and test a two megabits-per-second product. If the trial is a success then the service could launch commercially early next year. However, the service -- called IPStream 2000 -- will not be available to every home in the UK. ADSL's technical limitations means the 2Mbps link won't work beyond a certain distance from the local telephone exchange.
BT couldn't say on Monday what proportion of UK homes would miss out because their telephone connection to the local exchange is too long. BT's 512Kbps wholesale product can be accessed by virtually all households, while its 1Mbps service is limited to around 70 per cent of the population - those who live within 6km of the exchange.
If this 2Mbps service does launch then it could help to force down the price of BT's existing wholesale products. There are also no pricing details available.
The trial of IPStream 2000 will begin on 29 November and run for at least eight weeks. The word from BT is that there is no limit on the number of people who can take part, nor do participants need to use BT Retail as their ISP. Any of the 100 or more ISPs reselling BT's ADSL services can take part.
A BT Wholesale spokesman on Monday that "As many customers as care to come forward can take part," and added that some ISPs have already been encouraging BT to launch a 2Mbps broadband service.
BT's retail arm is currently testing a device to let customers download television and video down their broadband line. Although technical details of this set-top box aren't available, it will rely on a fast ADSL service such as IPStream 2000, rather than a slower 512Kbps service.
Graeme Wearden writes for ZDNet UK.
Comments
There are 18 comments. Join the discussion
1. Alan
There are many ISP's which already offer a 2MB service, yet you never hear silicon publish anything about those. I'm sure Silicon are paid by BT to advertise their products/services instead of writing about them
2. Alan Tyson
"BT's 512Kbps wholesale product can be accessed by virtually all households" - By virtually all, do you mean anyone within 10 miles of a large town? I live in a village halfway between Leeds and York and still can't get broadband till sometime next year. Rural access problems haven't gone away.
3. Paul
What's the link for applying for this test? How do I apply?
4. Dick Winchester
And the price will be?? Actually there's an even smarter way of doing this by using bonded broadband.. I think Griffin are offering it. 2,4,8mb plus... Good thing is that upload speed increases as well.. I don't think this is the case with the BT 2Mb product..
5. Martyn Witt
I'd rather BT spent a bit of their clearly plentiful development money replacing the frayed bit of old wire that takes an amazing 7km to cover the 2.5km straight line distance to my local exchange, so I could get any reliable broadband! I enjoyed the 20th Century but I'm bored with it now and would quite like to join the rest of you in the 21st.
6. Paul
To Alan (do you still love John Kerry?)
yes, plenty of other providers (mainly cable) offer 2Mbps, but far fewer households are able to access them - I don't have NTL, Telewest or C&W anywhere near my home, so they are not an option. I'm sure that Silicon.com are paid no more by BT (whom they are traditionally battling against) than I have been for mentioning the three companies above. But they are in the business of reporting news that impacts the largest number of consumers, and as such, BT qualifies, where the others maybe don't.
Save the cynicism for the Democrat post-mortem, yes?
7. Gareth Davies
Just phoned BT Broadband about this. Spent nearly 10 mins with a very helpful girl, but in spite of her enquiring to manager, colleagues etc, nobody there knew anything at all about this, so she was unable to advise how I can sign up
:¬(
8. Gareth Davies
Well I'd love to know Graeme Wearden's source for this as I've spent ages on the phone yesterday and today, to various BT departments, and nobody seems to know anything about this proposed trial.
9. SImon
I can't understand what the fuss is about. We have a 2M ADSL line (from Demon (Thus)) at work, and I could have one at home (from Plusnet) if I wanted to pay extra.
I thought 2M was a standard offering, so what am I missing (apart from wanting SDSL at work !) ?
10. Graeme Wearden
Sorry to hear that BT weren't able to help you, Gareth.
Just got off the phone with BT Wholesale's press office, who make the point that it's up to individual Interet service providers to decide whether their users can take part in the trial.
So anyone who's keen to test IPStream 2000 should ask their ISP what their plans are. I know AOL are going to take part, and will publicise this later this year.
11. anonymous
I'd heard that consumer broadband throughput is dependant upon the number of users in your street/community - for the average user, this makes little difference until school is out!
Does this apply to the business offerings? and the new 2Mb service?
12. anonymous
TO ALAN
which companies have 2mb or more?
13. Romain
I feel sorry for british customers. Here ISPs are already offering 15mb/s services.
14. Liam Aylward
BTopenworld business customers on ADSL who pay for a fixed IP address to run own e-mail service are having problems sending mail to companies using Mail-abuse.com new DUL listing (eg HP.com and some government or education sites). BT "fixed" IP address are still classed as DYNAMIC and all BT "dynamic"address's are now listed in MAPS DUL list. Seems to have happenned around 1st Nov 2004 Attempts to use Maps "remove" facility have resulted in no response from them after 30hrs, although they state that it can be rectified within minutes of reporting ........
15. derek
ok i have tried 4 times to gather info on BT 2mb service, all i get is 'sorry sir we dont do 2mb just now'. BT just dont know what i am talking about.
16. pual
BT REALLY need to learn how to make thing right... noit that i care much either way. They're a s**t ISP, with a s**t connection system.
So for people who don't know use Telewest
17. anonymous
BT attempted to upgrade my line to 2 mbs on 18 Jun. Since then I have had no service. Tomorrow with be the forth week without any connection. I have been phoning at least every other day and been met by a range of incompetence and indifference. Repeated assurances that the problem has been addressed by engineers have got nowhere. How it can take this long to realise that the 2 mb line will not work and revert to the old connection is beyond my understanding.
The lack of support is staggering.
18. anonymous
BT attempted to upgrade my line to 2 mbs on 18 Jun. Since then I have had no service. Tomorrow with be the forth week without any connection. I have been phoning at least every other day and been met by a range of incompetence and indifference. Repeated assurances that the problem has been addressed by engineers have got nowhere. How it can take this long to realise that the 2 mb line will not work and revert to the old connection is beyond my understanding.
The lack of support is staggering.