Broadband News

BT unveils cheap 40Mb superfast broadband

Thursday 21 January 2010

By Seamour Rathore seamour@consumerchoices.co.uk

If you want superfast 40Mb broadband for less than £20 a month, it’s now available from BT.

BT Broadband (www.BT.com) has unveiled a 40Mb broadband package for £19.99 a month.

BT, the UK’s biggest broadband provider, highlighted that its new BT Infinity (www.BT.com/Infinity) package is £7.47 cheaper a month than Virgin Media’s 50Mb broadband.

It will also offer download speeds of up to 10Mb, which BT claims is six times faster than Virgin Media’s service which offers 1.5Mb upload speeds.

Virgin Media, however, has been trialling 200Mb broadband and 10Mb upload speeds on its cable network in recent months.

Gavin Patterson, chief executive officer at BT Retail, said: "BT Infinity gives customers the capacity and reliability they need in an instant and at a great value price they can afford. We are committed to rolling out superfast speeds across the UK."

The superfast broadband service will be available in 4 million homes and businesses by the end of December this year.

BT has a £1.5billion long-term project to make superfast broadband available to at least 40% of the UK, by summer 2012. It is also launching a superfast broadband service for businesses, BT Business Total Broadband Fibre.

Virgin Media's 50Mb broadband package costs £28 a month if you also take a Virgin Media phone line at £11 a month. Virgin Media(www.Virginmedia.com) also pointed out that the places where the BT 40Mb broadband service is currently available are already able to opt for Virgin Media's service.

A Virgin Media spokesman said: "We're not sure why people in the UK would want to wait for BT's 40Mb service which hasn't launched yet, when they can already get Virgin Media's great value 50Mb service."

Michael Phillips, product director at Broadbandchoices.co.uk, said: “BT has priced its new 40Mb service competitively, clearly with a view to competing head to head with Virgin Media’s 50Mb product.

“As we all watch and download more media, the uptake of superfast broadband in homes is set to escalate. Virgin Media’s 50Mb service is currently available to 12.5 million cable homes and BT claims it will serve 4 million homes and businesses with its 40Mb Infinity service by the end of this year.

“BT’s headline pricing of £19.99 a month is attractive, but potential customers should bear in mind that the option 1 package only comes with a monthly download allowance of 20GB. To get unlimited downloads with BT, customers will have take option 2 which is £24.99 a month,” added Phillips.

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