BT completes 20Mbits/sec broadband boost

 

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By Stewart Mitchell

Posted on 17 Aug 2009 at 14:57

BT has announced that it's finished upgrading hundreds of its telephone exchanges in a move the company says will increase headline broadband speeds to 20Mbits/sec.

The speed tweak – from "up to" 8Mbits/sec – will be free for customers lucky enough to live in enabled areas, and is accompanied by an increase in theoretical upstream speeds from 448Kbits/sec to 1Mbits/sec.

The revved-up service will initially only be available for BT Retail customers connecting through 549 exchanges that serve approximately 40% of the UK's homes and businesses, although the company hopes to increase reach to 55% by March next year. We're waiting to here back from BT on which areas will receive the speed boost.

Interestingly, for those vexed by the industry-wide practice of over-hyping headline speeds, BT is marketing ADSL as "up to 20Mbits/sec" even though the technology is theoretically capable of 24Mbtis/sec.

"Only a small percentage of customers are likely to be able to receive the 24Mbits/sec," a BT spokesperson told [i]PC Pro[i] back in June. "We think 20Mbits/sec is a better indication of the sort of service they can expect."

BT is also pressing ahead with trials of fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) this summer. The FTTC service will offer speeds up to 40Mbits/sec and is being piloted in Whitchurch, South Wales and Muswell Hill in London.

The company still has a long way to go to catch up with Virgin, however. The cable company is currently testing 200Mbit/sec broadband connections.