| BT's Pretty Slow Broadband Deploying to 500,000 |
| Written by Dave Burstein |
 BT's upgraded DSL deployment is beginning with half-a-million homes passed set for this year. The equipment is unchanged, but the speed has miraculously gone up from "up to 40 mbps" to "up to 60 mbps," as Virgin rolls 50 meg around the country. They haven't officially released what's inside the boxes, but many VDSL chips today go 100 mbps for about 200 meters.
At least three-quarters of the exchanges are in territory I'm pretty sure are served at 50 meg (or higher) by Virgin, so this is a defensive move. 8 of the exchanges are in London, 6 in Manchester, and carefully a handful in the larger cities of Scotland and Ireland. 1-2 meg up DSL is not "super-fast" broadband no many how many times BT - or Ed Richards - repeats it. There will soon be 20M 100/50 lines in the U.S. and 10M or more across Europe. There are already over 50M 100/50 lines in Asia, with many offering up to a gigabit. If cable returns to the planned deployment of DOCSIS 3.0 upstream as well as downstream, there will soon be over 100M lines designed for 50/50 or higher. |
