Broadband Guide

40Mb broadband

Updated: Tuesday 04 January, 2011

By Editorial - news@consumerchoices.co.uk

If you want superfast broadband, a next-generation fibre optic line can give you faster speeds than ever before.

BT 40Mb broadband

At the start of 2010, BT Broadband launched a selection of fibre optic 40Mb broadband packages known as BT Infinity (www.BT.com/Infinity). Option 1 comes with 40Mb downloads, up to 2Mb uploads and a 20GB monthly download allowance.

Option 2 also comes with 40Mb downloads but has a faster upload speed of up to 10Mb and an “unlimited broadband” download allowance, subject to a fair usage policy.

What speed will I get?

Although fibre optic cables are much more reliable than the older copper wire telephone lines used for ADSL broadband, there are still a number of factors that can affect your speed, including distance from the telephone street cabinet, electrical interference and poor quality wiring.

In addition to this, every home broadband line in the country - even fibre optic connections - are affected by speed fluctuations caused by network conditions, the time of day you go online and the servers you're downloading from.

Because of this, not every customer has the potential to get 40Mb - some customers might only be able to get a maximum of 30Mb, for example. BT has said though, that customers will get an average of around 30Mb and a minimum speed of 15Mb.

Upload speeds are also faster with fibre optic broadband. Although BT’s Option 1 package offers speeds of up to 2Mb, its Option 2 package offers a massive 10Mb uploads.

BT Infinity rollout

At launch in February 2010, BT’s Infinity broadband was only available to around 500,000 customers, with a further 2.5 million homes and businesses getting access by late summer, rising to four million by the end of 2010.

BT has committed to delivering its superfast broadband to 40% of the UK - or some 10 million homes and businesses - by 2012.

50Mb broadband

Virgin Media (www.VirginMedia.com) currently offers the UK’s fastest package, with its XXL 50Mb broadband.

This package is only available to customers on its cable network, which covers around 51% of the UK. Virgin Media’s 50Mb package has been available to 12.5 million customers since summer 2009.

Although its advertised download speeds are faster than BT’s fibre broadband packages, Virgin Media’s XXL upload speeds are only 1.5Mb, compared to 2Mb and 10Mb with BT.

UK broadband speeds

Broadband speeds are measured in Mb - megabits per second, or Mbps - and average speeds across the UK were around 4.1Mb in July 2009, according to regulator Ofcom.

However, some ADSL providers offers speeds of up to 24Mb and next-generation broadband packages like those offered by BT and Virgin Media offer speeds of up to 40Mb and 50Mb respectively.

Run a broadband speed test to see how your package compares.

Future broadband speeds

BT’s Infinity (www.BT.com/Infinity) packages use fibre-to-the-cabinet technology, where fibre optic cables run to your telephone street cabinet, and copper wires deliver your broadband to your home.

However, some new-build areas are being developed with fibre-to-the-home technology, where BT can run fibre optic cables direct to your home to deliver your broadband. This technology offers even faster speeds at a massive 100Mb.

But it doesn’t end there. Virgin Media (www.VirginMedia.com) has been trialling speeds of up to 200Mb over its existing network - taking the future of broadband even further.

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