BT Improves Copper Network To Give Internet Speeds Of Up To 20mbps
BT has said it is planning to enhance the copper broadband network in the UK so that 80% of the country can access internet speeds of up to 20mbps from the current 8mbps, which is good news for both domestic and business broadband users.
BT says its plan to improve copper broadband networks in the UK is an extension of its ADSL2+ copper broadband service – Wholesale Broadband Connect (WBC). At the moment this is available from over 1,000 exchanges providing improved broadband for over 15.5 million domestic and business premises.
As part of its work, the telecom company is improving over 30,000 lines a week. It means more customers will benefit from this much improved copper service which is being used by over 2 million consumers at the moment.
The upgrades will be offered by BT Wholesale to other internet providers such as Talk Talk and BT Retail so that they can offer it to their own customers.
BT has said that it will spend around £2.5 billion investing in fibre broadband so that around 66% of the UK has access to superfast broadband by 2015. This will provide speeds of “up to 40mbps” – something which is accessible to over 4 million homes and businesses at the moment.
Meanwhile, network operators including Talk Talk and Virgin Media have sent a letter to Ed Vaizey, the minister responsible for Broadband Delivery UK, which suggests the Government’s plan to invest £830 million in improving rural broadband may not be viable and the subsidy scheme could be dominated by BT.
Last year Ofcom ordered BT to give other internet service providers access to its infrastructure of ducts and poles to enable them to reduce the cost of rolling out fibre optic cable in rural towns and villages. However, network operators complain that BT’s pricing is too high.
The leaked letter to Ed Vaizey said, “We are unanimous in the belief that the BDUK competitive procurement process will lack a credible alternative to BT, should BT fail to make substantial revisions to…pricing”.
The letter suggested Ofcom should intervene as soon as possible to “require BT to quickly revise the pricing”.
BT published a draft pricing policy in January but internet providers including Talk Talk, Fujitsu, Virgin Media and Geo say these figures produced by BT are as much as 4 or 5 times its costs and consequently it would be cheaper to build their own ducts and poles.
BT will make a final offer in the summer and is currently being discussed by an industry forum. If after BT has announced its final pricing, other providers are still not happy it could be that Ofcom could regulate pricing.
BT answered the points in the letter by saying “The fact is our proposed prices for duct access compare very well with European averages whilst our plans for pole access have been held up due to others delaying our trials”.