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BT Wholesale has teamed-up with British firm Sharedband to offer the bonded connections to hundreds of ISPs across the country.

The service works by connecting a specially-adapted router to each of the lines entering the building. The routers discover each other and pool the bandwidth of the lines they are connected to. All internet traffic is passed through an aggregation server at the ISP, which sends and receives the packets of data to the routers.

The service is primarily pitched at small businesses, who want to increase their bandwidth but can't afford leased lines. "The

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minimum leased line is a £1,000 per month," says Keith Collins, sales and marketing director at Sharedband. "For small businesses, £12,000 plus a year is very difficult to justify."

The Sharedband service also offers businesses contingency for their broadband connections. "With Sharedband, if one of the lines drops out, you can still use the bandwidth from the other line," says Collins. "With an ordinary ADSL connection, if the line goes down, you're stuffed."

Sharedband can handle up to four separate lines, potentially giving people with only a 2Mb/sec connection a true 8Mb/sec line. The upload speed is also doubled, which Collins claims is a massive boost for businesses. "The limited upstream out of the office is a real block for remote workers."

Remote workers who live in rural areas will also be able to buy connections to match their urban colleagues.

The price of the Sharedband service will be roughly equal to the cost of the separate lines (including both line rental and monthly broadband subscription), plus around 20% more to cover Sharedband's fees. Collins estimates ISPs will start offering dual-line packages from around £50 per month.