Tag: BT
OnLive game streaming platform to be bundled with BT Broadband in the UK
While it once seemed like an impossible pipe-dream, OnLive's game streaming service now has the backing of at least one heavyweight partner, BT. BT have signed an exclusive partnership deal with the cloud gaming company, obtaining a 2.6 per cent…
O2 voted favourite British broadband provider
A poll carried out by www.broadband-expert.co.uk has revealed O2 to be Britian's favourite broadband provider. Over 100,000 broadband users voted in the poll, with 6,676 giving O2 the highest average satisfaction rating of 77%. View the full list of results…
BT slams government's plans to tackle illegal file sharers
Dealing with online piracy has often been a bone of contention between operators and the government, but since the plans laid out in the Digital Economy Bill were announced, disagreements has stepped up a notch. Now BT's chief executive Ian…
BT announce new high-speed Infinity broadband package
BT have announced the launch of Infinity, the first consumer broadband package to use their new next-generation access (NGA) fibre-optic network. For £19.99 a month, customers can get download speeds of 40Mbps and upload speeds of 2 Mbps. Data is…
BT launch new Vision + box
In keeping with the big green trend in electronics right now, BT are re-launching their Vision range of set top boxes, claiming a 12% reduction in power consumption. The new BT Vision + box doesn't just give you Freeview TV…
BT super-fast broadband rollout on schedule for 2012 Olympic launch
BT have today announced that they are ahead of schedule for their super fast broadband rollout, and plan to have the network ready nationwide in time for the 2012 Olympic games. BT aim to have a 100Mbps service ready for…
Qisda ready Chumby-like "multimedia router"
The FCC have picked up on a brand new "multimedia router" from Qisda, which looks to have some rather unique features for this sort of device. Rather than just sorting out your broadband connection, the as-yet-unnamed router also has a…
Britons prefer to be online than between the sheets
In news that is set to put a tear in the eye of romantics everywhere, it appears nearly two thirds of Brits would rather surf the web than spend passionate time with a loved one.
Britain's broadband 'not fit for the future', but no surprises there
There seemed to be a real kerfuffle on the news this morning caused by a Cisco-sponsored survey which showed that UK finished 25th out of 66th in the broadband quality league table, lower that is than Bulgaria and Latvia. The amazing thing is that anyone was really surprised by our relatively lowly position.
As anyone who has been to South Korea and Japan – the two countries that top the table – can tell you they are simply light years ahead of us in terms of broadband penetration, speeds and quality. Indeed the South Korean government recently promised universal speeds of up to 1Gigabit per second by 2012 while we struggle to meet the global average speed of 4.75 Megabits per second (Ofcom’s April research revealed that our average broadband download speed stands at 4.1Mbps.)
Now I haven’t been to Bulgaria and Latvia so I can’t vouch for their broadband (though one wag commented on the Daily Mail site of course that the roads were much better in Bulgaria than the UK). But again it doesn’t really surprise me.
So what’s the problem? Why does the UK lag behind seemingly less developed countries when it comes to high speed delivery of internet services. The reason is largely because of lack of fibre-optic cable which is the only way of delivering the high speeds necessary for superfast broadband (currently we rely mostly on old copper telephone wire via ADSL networks). This is because for years there were dozens of tin-pot little cable companies with no money who spent more time squabbling with each other than actually digging up the roads to lay high speed cable. Even today there are large parts of densely populated neighbourhoods in London which still don’t have fibre-optic cable.
The good news though is that could be about to change, albeit slowly, with Virgin now the only cable company on the block. It is rolling out a 50Mbps service while 24Mbps ADSL2+ services via BT and others are becoming more widespread. However, it seems there is still some way to go before we reach the average download speed of 11.25Mbps that’s needed to handle future applications such as High Definition Video.
Until then Britain will have to be content with the survey’s label of ‘Meeting Needs for Today’, the broadband equivalent of ‘must try harder’.
BT on course with its super-fast broadband project
BT has announced that an additional 69 towns will be receiving their super-fast fibre-based broadband by this time next year – meaning the service will be available to 1.5 million homes and businesses.
BT’s Steve Robertson said: “We had aimed to get fibre to half a million homes by next March but we’re now being far more ambitious. We’ve received a tremendous response to date and so we’re keen to get on with the job.”
Their overall goal of the project, which is costing the telecommunication giant £1.5billion, is to have 10 million homes covered by 2012 – 40% of the country.
BT will be offering access to ISPs on an open, wholesale basis thereby supporting a competitive market. The first areas to have access to the network went live earlier this week. Trials are taking place in Muswell Hill, London and Whitchurch, South Wales and involve 16 different ISPs.
The plan is great news for internet users and makes a bit of a mockery of the plan set out in the Digital Britain report to ensure that the country is covered by a broadband network capable of 2Mbps. The super-fast network being developed by BT should be capable of speeds of 40Mbps – 100Mbps. No wonder MPs are to open an inquiry into whether the 2Mbps plan is ambitious enough. Clearly it isn’t.
(via BT & Computing.co.uk)