BT rolls out 'faster broadband'

Schnippzle · 1 May 2008 at 10:40

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7376173.stm

Is it just me.....or is BT well behind on all this?

Dolph · 1 May 2008 at 11:17

They are a bit behind, but this is really about them allowing other ISP's to use ADSL2 on their network, rather than having to be LLU. LLU is good from BT's point of view with new tech, as they don't have to support it, rolling out something you have to support for lots of third parties will generally take longer and only occur once you are sure it's going to be reliable.

milkinc13 · 1 May 2008 at 12:03

wow when will BT start in investing in something faster than 24Mb, when VM roll out their 50Mb package i can see a large number migrating to them for the faster speeds

Visage · 1 May 2008 at 12:10

milkinc13 said:
wow when will BT start in investing in something faster than 24Mb, when VM roll out their 50Mb package i can see a large number migrating to them for the faster speeds

Theres no point. If BT start giving people high speeds then BT need to start supporting the corresponding bandwidth on their core network, which is where the costs reallys start to mount, as Virgin have found....

For 99% of the country 24Mb is more than enough....

FrankJH · 1 May 2008 at 12:51

Visage said:
For 99% of the country 24Mb is more than enough....

Quoted for understatement of the century

Visage · 1 May 2008 at 13:27

FrankJH said:
Quoted for understatement of the century

Lol...i did think about adding a few more 9s on, but didnt want to get beseiged by the 'OMG I NEED 50mbit to download all my linux ISOs' crowd.

FrankJH · 1 May 2008 at 14:12

Visage said:
Lol...i did think about adding a few more 9s on, but didnt want to get beseiged by the 'OMG I NEED 50mbit to download all my linux ISOs' crowd.

I doubt 5% of OCUK forum members use Linux, so what prooportion of the UK population would that be I wonder 1/50th of 1%?

CurlyWhirly · 1 May 2008 at 15:49

Schnippzle said:
Is it just me.....or is BT well behind on all this?

They are slow, my exchange isn't due to be upgraded until the end of June next year!

BE are due to enable my exchange next month and I was thinking of going over to them but it's a 12 month contract on BE Value

I'm used to monthly contracts like the ISP I'm with now (Zen)

V F · 1 May 2008 at 23:17

CurlyWhirly said:
They are slow

Slow.... prehistoric comes to mind.

Mine isn't due until April 2009, and there is no guarantee on that as things can be delayed. Knowing BT.

BT acts like fibre has just been created, when America and Japan have had it for god knows how long now. BT would advertise it like they created it. As if it was the first thing ever developed in this world. I seriously love marketing.

What America has is now old, Britain claims it as new to us. First ever!

Writing on his blog, he said: "If this is BT's 21st century network then those fibre to the home networks are for the 22nd century."

tolien · 2 May 2008 at 00:07

ADSLGuide/TBB covered it too. The big thing is that the ISPs have to offer it as well, and only a handful actually do (Enta and BT Retail right now) - 868 exchanges by this time next year means that 21CN coverage should rival Virgin Media's and the LLUers, which isn't so bad.

Given the increased differential in price for WBC between some exchanges, there's more to it than OMGZ 24Mbitz!!!!111
If anyone bothered to look behind the curtain, there might not be such a rush for 21CN...

V F · 2 May 2008 at 00:29

Heh, I loved this comment.

rizla said:
The exchange has every major LLU player present so frankly anyone staying on IPStream for the next 2+ years needs a sanity check.

Caged · 2 May 2008 at 00:41

V F said:
Snip

I think you're massively overstating the broadband situation in the USA. Fiber to the home is extremely limited.

clv101 · 2 May 2008 at 00:45

My line length is 210m. My exchange gets 21CN upgrade... day before yesterday! Just waiting for my ISP to pick it up now.

V F · 2 May 2008 at 00:50

@Caged

I am... theirs isn't Broadband, its Cable... and what is Cable... its Fiber Optics... and for people to get Cable over there or even here as well it has to run past their house.

Why is it I've read so many places for years people have Cable over there...

Even in Glasgow I'd have thought they would have Cable, but once again many can't because its not running past their house/area. Just like the same thing in Hamilton. That more people seem to have Cable over there in certain areas.

Caged · 2 May 2008 at 00:58

Cable isn't fiber.

V F · 2 May 2008 at 01:06

In some areas it is, not all. I see its coaxial copper to some houses over there.

tntcoder · 2 May 2008 at 01:09

How will 21cn increase speeds for people far away from the exchange? For example i have a straight line distance of 2.8km and can at a push get 3mbit on MAX, will this improve when they offer 24mbit? or am i screwed unless fiber is used?

Caged · 2 May 2008 at 01:11

V F said:
I see its coaxial copper to some houses over there.

So the same as it is here, then? The state of internet connections in the US isn't vastly better to what we have here.

Uhtred · 2 May 2008 at 08:05

Dolph said:
They are a bit behind, but this is really about them allowing other ISP's to use ADSL2 on their network, rather than having to be LLU. LLU is good from BT's point of view with new tech, as they don't have to support it, rolling out something you have to support for lots of third parties will generally take longer and only occur once you are sure it's going to be reliable.

Well they do have to support LLU in as far as if there is a fault with 'the last mile' (from the exchange to the house) then the ISP still need to call BT

Pulse · 2 May 2008 at 08:14

I feel that BT are being extremely slow with this upgrade for its exchanges. Not only that but the my exchange ins't being upgraded till Q3 2011! :mad:

Edit: Just checked on UserTools.Plus.Net and that seems to suggest that it will be offered as of the 18th August 2008, which I personally don't see happening. And Nildram UK is still highlighting my exchange as congested with a provisional upgrade date of 25th January 2008, so just a little out. It's been congested since July last year and the status hasn't changed since, they use to bother updating the upgrade date but seems they've given up on it now.