Rapid Web News

So is BT finally pulling up their antiquated ‘upto 8 meg’ packages to something that’s actually worth paying for? I’ve always considered paying a fixed price for something that often pulls up short is a little cheeky to be honest; I mean what if I quoted customers for a 10 PC user based network and then when only 3 PC’s turned up they read the fine print on the quote and see ‘upto 10 PC’s supplied’ could we get away with it – I think not.

So what is BT going to be offering? Well apparently customers will be able to get speeds of 40Mbps for downloading and an upload speed of 10Mbps from around 20 quid a month. You will however need to be in an area where BT has installed their NGA (Next Generation Access) – info on which seems to be somewhat thin on the ground. All I seem to find is reports on how they will fall short of predicted coverage. I did however find where the new broadband will be initially tested; Muswell Hill, Whitchurch and Glasgow – quite strange choices.

“The internet is essential to our customers’ lives and they are demanding more and more as richer and even more compelling services become available. BT Infinity gives customers the capacity and reliability they need in an instant and at a great value price they can afford. We want to give our customers the best possible online experience and are committed to rolling out super-fast speeds across the UK,” – Gavin Patterson, chief executive officer of BT Retail. Infinity is the service businesses are now being offered. Last time I looked into a BT business connection they wanted to charge £5 a month for a static IP…

So British Telecom has announced plans to roll out fibre optic to one in six of the population by 2012…

Could this be a hoax? Is BT planning to rip out all that dated, worn out copper wire? Will people in rural areas finally get decent speeds? – All good questions. BT initially were only installing fibre to new build areas but now, it seems, they are branching out. BT are claiming that 1.5 million homes will have access by next summer however they also say that they are only Installing fibre-optics as an integral part of local telecoms cabinets in some cases.

This means that they are putting a bang up to date technology in fibre optics and sticking it on the end of copper wire which could potentially only give you a third of the actual speed being transmitted. I appreciate it will speeds things up to a degree but why not just do the whole lot with an ongoing project. Start with the people getting rubbish connection speeds in rural areas as the above proposed ‘fix’ would help these guys out no end, then start and work on larger towns and cities as not many here get poor connections in these places. Wouldn’t that make more sense?

Let’s hope BT can hold onto enough of its customers to warrant such a huge undertaking, now that Virgin Media are dedicated to getting fibre optic to the people it could turn into a race or better still a price war…

BT’s range of goods can be found here