Wanadoo to offer 8Mbps broadband next month

Posted on 17 Oct 2005 at 12:13

Wanadoo has unveiled detailed plans for its LLU strategy in the UK with initial standard speeds of 8Mbps.

The division of France Telecom is not the first to offer such services. Bulldog and Plusnet have them, as do UK Online and EasyNet. And together with the likes of Be, services with speeds approaching 24Mbps are planned with the roll-out of ADSL2+ technologies.

But Wanadoo remains the first major ISP to engage at this level. BT today announced 8Mbps services to begin in the spring of next year.

However, the services will only initially be available in areas where Wanadoo has moved its equipment into exchanges as part of the local loop unbundling strategy.

This comprises exchanges centred around Leeds, London, Bristol, Manchester and Birmingham. It plans to have around 40 per cent of the UK population covered within the next 12 months.

The 8Mbps services will launch next month. They will be priced at Wanadoo's standard tariff of £14.99 for the first half a year, rising to £17.99 a month thereafter.

Those still stuck with connections yet to be unbundled will be standardised at 2Mbps, and upgraded for free to the 8Mbps services once they are available.

As with its smaller rivals, Wanadoo says it will begin offering 24Mbps services once testing is complete.

It is also looking at even greater speeds, and recently demonstrated VDSL2 services, with real-world speeds - as opposed to the oft-quoted theoretical maximum speeds - in excess of 80Mbps.

The company says that the increased bandwidths will enable it to offer 'multi-play' services such as video-on-demand and new VoIP services.

Wanadoo broadband also includes the Livebox, a wireless router that can be upgraded remotely by the ISP to add in services such as its Wireless & Talk VoIP services.

Note that customers that take up Wanadoo broadband from an unbundled exchange will not be required to change their telephone provider, and can use the additional services the company provides without affecting their existing setup.

Wanadoo currently has 2.2m UK customers, but only a third on broadband. Its investment in LLU in the UK is part of a €1bn three-year plan to ramp up its unbundling schedule across Europe. The company hopes the strategy will drive conversions of its dial-up customers so that around two-thirds of its UK customers are on broadband.

Author: Matt Whipp