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Although BT will offer speeds of up to 100Mb/sec in short bursts, the standard download speed is only 10Mb/sec. That's slower than many people will receive on BT's new ADSL2+ services which operate over the copper-based network.

The 10Mb/sec speed pales in comparison to cable rival Virgin Media, which has already trialled 50Mb/sec broadband ahead of a full roll-out later this year.

"These speeds make it the lowest [speed] fibre service in Europe", Jupiter Research analyst Ian Fogg told the BBC.

"I am surprised. This is a trial and I see no reason

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why they aren't trialling the highest speed the technology can deliver. What is the point of a trial if you don't really test things?"

Equally disappointing are the upload speeds, which are restricted to a maximum of 2Mb/sec - just four times faster than today's ADSL Max connections.

BT has defended the trial, claiming customers will be given 100Mb/sec whenever they need it. "The 100 Mb/sec offer is a real one, and will be the highest speed available in Europe," BT claims. "The technical reference to a burst simply means that any given [time], users will be constantly connected at (at least) the 10 Mb/sec rate, but whenever they require speeds of 100 Mb/sec it will be available."

"Considering the consumer issues with current marketing practices of broadband speed, we believe this is the clearest way of expressing the capability at this time."

Earlier this week, BT asked Ofcom for permission to give 300 of the Ebbsfleet trialists a discount on their broadband connection, to help encourage take-up of the service.