BT is launching a new wholesale broadband service in Great Britain with a potential for sizzling speeds up to 8 megabits per second.
The asymmetric DSL service will effectively double current broadband speeds and will be available to 99.6 percent of British homes and businesses when it is launched at the end of the month.
The vaunted 8 Mbps service, however, will be primarily available to customers who live close to their local exchanges. About 78 percent of BT phone lines will support speeds of 4 Mbps or above. The speeds depend in large part on the length and gauge of the phone lines connected to the customer location.
BT is in the process of upgrading more than 5,300 exchanges to handle the new service, which will support new broadband services such as video and Internet gaming.
Copyright 2006 by United Press International
