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21 Century Network speed doubts
(16-04-08) - Claims that half of the country would be able to receive actual speeds of 12Mb under BT’s 21 Century Network (21CN) have been dispelled by the company today.
Last month, Cameron Rejali, BT Wholesale managing director of products and strategy, told reporters that “we think 50 per cent of lines will have 12Mb or better,” under 21CN.
However, BT (www.BT.com) has now updated its statistics to say that 50 per cent of the users would only achieve actual speeds of 6.3Mb-9.3Mb - far lower than the figure Rejali told journalists, and little more than some people currently receive.
It also revealed that 75 per cent of the country is expected to receive at least 3.3Mb-5Mb, 50 per cent to receive at least 6.3Mb-9.3Mb, a quarter are expected to receive at least 10.9Mb-14.7Mb and only 10 per cent to achieve at least 2.1Mb-16.2Mb.
A spokesperson told PC Pro: “It is very difficult to predict the actual speeds that customers will receive once BT Wholesale Broadband Connect is rolled out on a nationwide scale.
“Testing and trialling continues and estimates of line rates and coverage may change. For example, customers that today take the DSL Max service (up to 8Mb) are receiving higher line speeds than were predicted during the DSL Max trial, hence Cameron’s comments that 50 per cent of UK households could well achieve higher speeds than the current lab trial data indicates.”
BT earlier told the magazine that the rollout of 21CN would be the perfect opportunity for ISPs to begin advertising average speeds, rather than the theoretical, but almost impossible to achieve, maximum.
“Headline speeds still seem to be the key marketing lever,” Guy Bradshaw, general manager of BT Wholesale broadband, said. “As an industry, we should focus on average throughput.”
Michael Phillips, BroadbandChoices.co.uk product director, said: “Although the trail results for 21CN are disappointing, 6.3Mb-9.3Mb is a little higher than the speeds we currently record on ‘super fast’ packages from Virgin Media (www.VirginMedia.com), Sky Broadband (www.Sky.com) and Be Broadband (www.BeThere.co.uk) that offer 20Mb, 16Mb and 24Mb respectively.
“Many people don’t realise that they won’t get anything like the speeds that are advertised when they sign up and this has lead to a backlash against broadband providers.
“BT is right when it says that now is the time to start advertising average, achievable speeds rather than flashy top speeds,” he concluded.
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