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News on BT Wholesale ADSL2+ roll-out
Monday 15 October 2007 11:37:50 by Andrew Ferguson

BT Wholesale has announced a little more news on its next generation broadband service following on from the trial news a month ago.

The plan is to have ADSL2+ available to 5% of the UK customer base from April 2008, rising to 50% of the UK market by April 2009. A little more can be read about this on our forum where an eagle eyed reader posted the original snippet.

Around 70% of UK households have access to ADSL2+ via an unbundled service already, but the BT Wholesale roll-out should change this by reaching parts of the UK the unbundled providers will never go to due to economies of scale not being present.

The roll-out of the ADSL2+ products from BT Wholesale while making using of the 21st Century Network (21CN), will not require the phone services on an exchange to have been switched to 21CN, just that the back haul and other components needed for the broadband product to be in place. This means even if your telephone service is not due for 21CN switch-over until 2010 you may get the ADSL2+ products before then.

[ Topic: Internet Service Providers | 15 comments | link to this item ]

Comments

Posted by inconsistent over 6 years ago
Good news, I think. But I'm a little confused by the figures.

"Around 70% of UK households have access to ADSL2+ via an unbundled service already"

and

"The plan is to have ADSL2+ available to 5% of the UK customer base from April 2008, rising to 50% of the UK market by April 2009."

So what exactly is the difference between UK customer base and UK households?

Posted by csimon over 6 years ago
I think it means *BT* will have ADSL2+ available to 5% and then 50%, even though 70% already have access from other providers.

Posted by csimon over 6 years ago
"the BT Wholesale roll-out should change this by reaching parts of the UK the unbundled providers will never go to due to economies of scale not being present"

Does this mean that they will be doing it for all exchanges regardless of the size? And would they be doing these first or will they concentrate on the same 70% that already have it? I can see that the parts of the UK don't have LLU will *still* not see ADSL2+ for a very long time! And by then fibre might have started happening.

Posted by plesbit over 6 years ago
50% of the customer base by mid 2009? In other words, London, Birmingham and a few other big cities, plus some smaller ones - all the places ADSL2+ already is. That is even slower than I had thought - and I thought I was erring on the side of caution! ADSL2+ will be an antique by the time anyone else sees it.

Posted by normsland over 6 years ago
@plesbit: you can check BT's 21CN website (http://www.switchedonuk.org/) to tell you roughly when 21CN services should be available in your area. Although it makes no distinction between when ADSL2+ or voice will be moved over. Doh!

Posted by CARPETBURN over 6 years ago
Totally agree with plesbit. The service is totally pointless. It also remains to be seen how badly this new fangled BT idea gets throttled and monthly caps applied. Why anyone living in a big city would even bother waiting for BT if they want adsl2+ speeds is beyond me, going to a LLU supplier will probably cost less than what BTs adsl2+ will cost and is far less likely to have nasty restrictions in some form applied. Me thinks this is just BT sour grapes that LLU adsl2+ services are beginning to make a dent in the market and they want the trade back.

Posted by normsland over 6 years ago
@Carpertburn: hmm this means I've got to make my nearly 8mbit ADSL "Max" connection last another 2+ years before being able to apply for ADSL2+. No wonder why people are getting a little concerned. We are going to be broadband lepers of Europe by the time the wondrous 21CN is finished.

Posted by csimon over 6 years ago
"Although it makes no distinction between when ADSL2+ or voice will be moved over"

For my exchange, Sam Knows specifically says PSTN will be moved in Q4 2009, which is exactly the same date as appears on the BT site. So perhaps the BT site has always indicated voice only and this announcement today is just saying that they are now starting to think about when they will do the broadband side of things, which will be independent of the voice?

Posted by csimon over 6 years ago
"the BT Wholesale roll-out should change this by reaching parts of the UK the unbundled providers will never go to due to economies of scale not being present"

Also, I think we also have to remember that ADSL2+ will have no greater benefit for lines over about 2.5km-3km - and these are the places that LLU doesn't tend to get to, so I can't see that this new initiative from BT will do anything to improve things at all, except for those people already with high speeds and a plethora of operators to choose from.

Posted by andrew ( staff member) over 6 years ago
ADSL2+ offers some benefits - such as simpler bonding which while not much use to the average consumer if offered as an option may be picked up by providers targetting the SME market. Can get only 1.5Mbps - how does 4x1.5Mbps lines sound? Not cheap but would go faster.

Also ADSL2+ is on the wBC product range, not IPStream so new products, new pricing, new architecture.

If BT is being slow this should mean LLU providers can clean up and remove BT from the picture - surely.

Posted by herdwick over 6 years ago
"Does this mean that they will be doing it for all exchanges regardless of the size?" BT's 21CN wBC broadband product range will be standard across all of their exchanges, ie every 21CN exchange will have "up to 8" and "up to 24" products.

One 2000 line exchange with no LLU now gets 21CN in Q4 2009 for example.

ADSL2 and 2+ have features that do benefit longer lines, but obviously not to the same extent as if you live in the exchange.

Posted by CARPETBURN over 6 years ago
quote"Also ADSL2+ is on the wBC product range, not IPStream so new products, new pricing, new architecture."
True but if any BT based adsl2+ product ends up costing less than and being better value than (as an example) betheres basically limitless 18 quid service ill eat my words, until then as this is only going to be basically in a few exchanges and citys for now its a pointless service that compared to the competition will offer less in terms of allowed use in a month and cost more IMO (id be willing to wager on all that).

Posted by Gzero over 6 years ago
But you have to admit the change is better than the dark ages BT seem to have been sitting in for nearly 10 years :P

Posted by CARPETBURN over 6 years ago
errrrr they are still in the dark ages, fibre to them is something contained in baked beans.

Posted by doughnut77 over 6 years ago
So what if BT are releasing ADSL2+ ? It will still be overpriced, the customer service will have you pulling your hair out, and they will continue to 'shape' their traffic by choking your speed down at peak times (whilst telling you bare-faced lies about it).

I've been on ADSL2+ with Be for the last few months, giving me a 14Meg throughput (at all times of day) - the service is excellent and cheaper than the BT options. I wouldn't go back to those lying scumbags if they paid me.