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BT spells out 12Mbits/sec fibre guarantee

By Barry Collins

Posted on 26 Jan 2010 at 18:12

BT has confirmed details of its 12Mbits/sec speed guarantee for fibre broadband - but says it won't be compensating customers if it fails to deliver the goods.

The company outlined its fibre broadband plans earlier this week, including a promise that business connections will have a "stable 12Mbits/sec throughput" on the up to 40Mbits/sec lines.

However, the company says the Service Level Agreement doesn't include any rebate on monthly fees - which cost as much as £50 per month exc VAT - if the company fails to deliver the stated speeds.

Instead, BT says it will treat lines as faulty if they fail to hit the target speed. "If a customer's throughput speed drops below 12Mbits/sec they should contact the 24/7 freefone helpdesk and we will accept and remedy the fault," a BT spokesperson told PC Pro today.

Consumers who sign up for BT's fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) service are being given no speed guarantees at all, meaning professionals will have to pay at least £30 per month to guarantee decent speeds.

Fibre, of course, remains a distant dream for large parts of the country. BT has come under fire from politicians in South Derbyshire today for the poor state of ADSL connections in the region.

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User comments

Old technology

Not that I'm making excuses for BT's future planning on new technology.

But let's face it, phone lines were decide for just that, voice calls.

If there are places in the UK where people are getting a poor ADSL connection, there is a very good reason for it.

By treadmill on 26 Jan 2010

Sorry! I meant the word, design, not decide.

By treadmill on 26 Jan 2010

But ADSL is intended for phone lines. Where else are you suggesting its used.

By chapelgarth on 26 Jan 2010

accept and remedy the fault

Eventually, after first telling you to clean you computer of viruses, clear the cache, check & re-check your internal lines & connections, plug your computer into the main BT socket, test your internal connections again, run a virus scan & clear the cache yet again, do this every time you call & give dire warnings on how much it will cost you to send out an engineer should they find any fault with your internal lines and to run a speed test (on their specified site) several times over several days at varying time of the day...

Don't expect this guarantees the process of reporting a problem will be any easier than it is now

By greemble on 27 Jan 2010

12Mbits/sec speed guarantee for fibre broadband

But it will not compensate customers for failing to meet that guarantee! Sounds like a new new definition that the OED need to include or the ASA need to define guarantee.

By Amnesia10 on 27 Jan 2010

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