What Is BT Broadband?
The figures on broadband use in the UK are impressive. There are 4
million people in the UK who use ADSL and there are also another 2
million using cable connection. This means that there are 6 million
people in the UK who use an always-on type of Internet connection. BT
is considered the main supplier of broadband in the UK, because over
1.7 million people subscribe to one of BT's broadband packages.
It was in August of 2000 that BT first launched their high-speed
Internet connection. While it was only available to around one third of
UK households in the beginning stages, and it cost ?500 a year to have,
it was the first step in a series to Broadband Britain.
Currently, there are only 2 ways to connect to ADSL in the UK. With the
introduction of a new technology called Local Loop Unbundling, many
more people were able to have broadband service. This Local Loop
Unbundling makes it possible to connect without having a BT phone line.
At this time, however, only about 1% of households in the UK have this
kind of connection. The only other way to have a broadband connection
is by transforming a current BT phone line into a high-speed digital
line. This presents a problem for subscribers, because this is only
available with a BT phone line, so if you are not a BT subscriber, your
ISP has to pay money to BT for them to connect and maintain the line.
BT has been in the enviable position to dictate how available broadband
is throughout the UK.
Fears have surfaced that Ofcom, the UK telecom's watchdog, would force
the separation of the company because they had a monopoly by owning all
the phone lines and therefore the access to all broadband connections.
Because of this fear, BT is now agreeing to let rival companies have
access to the "Local Loop." This is a network of telephone lines around
the country. The downside of this action is that BT could stand to lose
many customers now that other companies can offer their broadband
services directly without having to pay BT for access.
The introduction of ADSL in the UK found many potential customers with
local exchanges that were out of date, and lines that were too old to
handle new technology. BT's solution is to offer countrywide campaigns
to upgrade exchanges if there is enough interest. Since ADSL is still
not widely available in rural villages and smaller areas of Britain, BT
is expanding and upgrading its network to meet the needs of these
areas. Broadband is now currently available in at least 96.6% of all UK
homes.
The standard package of BT is 2Mbps with a 1 GB monthly download limit.
What this means for the average user is that you can only download 1
GB's worth of content, (movies, music, web pages, etc) per month. Most
people find this adequate. But for people who do not abide by the
monthly limit, they can have their account suspended or severely
limited for the rest of the month. Users who want or need more can
upgrade their broadband to a 15 GB monthly limit for an additional fee.
To service every type of user, BT also has a Pay As You Go dialup and
dialup contracts with no limits.
BT Broadband also has packages and upgrades designed to suit every
user. It is simple to set up a gaming account to play Xbox and PS2
games online with others, and you get a variety of tools to help you
protect your children and your computer from spam, junk mail, pop-ups,
and viruses.
Reliability is one of the main reasons people will continue to
subscribe to BT. They pride themselves on having excellent customer
service, from setting up your line to many years in the future.
A new goal for BT is to make available for trial use their 8Mbps
connection. It is their intention to have it in common use by the end
of the year. BT's ultimate goal continues to be making broadband
service available throughout the country, including rural areas.
