BT "doubles" 24Mbits/sec broadband rollout - or does it?

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 24 Sep 2009 at 15:23

BT claims that it has "doubled the footprint" of its 24Mbits/sec ADSL2+ broadband rollout - although cynics might suggest it's little more than creative accounting.

The company claims that more than 40% of the country is already connected to an exchange that has been upgraded to its 21st century network (21CN), capable of delivering broadband speeds of up to 24Mbits/sec.

BT says that it will expand this rollout to cover 55% of the country by spring of next year, and 75% by spring 2011 (which sharp mathematicians may notice is less than double 40%).

There's another catch. BT says it will only complete the rollout if there is sufficient demand from ISPs.

That sounds remarkably similar to BT's previous position on 21CN, when the company said it would expand the network when "it was economically viable to do so."

So what's changed? And how has BT arrived at the 75% figure if it can't be sure of demand? "The 75% intended rollout figure comes from balancing indicated market demand with capital affordability," BT claims in a statement sent to PC Pro.

"The pace of rollout is ultimately dictated by wholesale customer demand and in turn their customer needs. BT Wholesale needs to consult with its communications provider customers on which exchanges will be enabled. Their requirements are currently being captured and the exchanges will be announced in due course."

Fibre rollout

The so-called expansion of the copper broadband rollout will run alongside BT's fibre deployment, which will see 10 million homes connected to up to 40Mbits/sec lines. BT refused to divulge if the same exchanges will benefit from both ADSL2+ and fibre, but it seems likely there will be a high degree of crossover.

One undoubted positive in the BT announcement is that the company will reduce the cost of wholesale access to its network, which should allow ISPs to make broadband cheaper for end users.

"We plan to reduce WBC [Wholesale Broadband Connect] prices to communications providers from January 2010 with bandwidth charges being dropped by almost 50% and WBC rental costs standardised at the lowest current price, too," claims Cameron Rejali, managing director of products at BT Wholesale.