Guide to broadband access from BT

For anybody who might just need a little clarification on the broadband access types provided by BT, we have produced this at-a-glance guide.

Essentially there are three broadband access ‘types’ provided by BT:

• Faster broadband

• Super-fast broadband

• Ethernet

Each of these is underpinned by the BT 21CN platform.

Currently, broadband is available to just under one hundred per cent of the UK population. The service delivers downstream speed of up to 8 Mb/s dependent on factors such as distance from the local exchange, condition of servers in the area and condition of domestic home wiring.

But now there is recognition that a broadband ‘mixed economy’ is emerging where different broadband users have different requirements. BT’s now broader access portfolio means the needs of these customers - going into the future - can be met.

Faster broadband

The introduction of ADSL2+ technology from BT means a major increase in broadband connection speeds. Downstream speeds will increase to up to 20 Mb/s while upstream speeds will increase to up to 1 Mb/s. The service is currently available to more than ten million homes or 40 per cent of the population. BT plans to extend that coverage in accordance with demand. BT Retail is already rolling out this service to its customers. Meanwhile BT Wholesale has made it available to other communications providers via a product called Wholesale Broadband Connect (WBC).

Super-fast broadband

This delivers even higher downstream and upstream broadband speeds as well as a greater average speed. The predominant deployment of super-fast broadband will be through Fibre to the street cabinet (FTTC). Here, the end -user will experience speeds of up to 40 Mb/s downstream and at least 1.3 Mb/s upstream. There will be a substantially higher footprint of people receiving higher average speed.

BT Wholesale is running a FTTC trial with nine internet service providers (ISPs) in Muswell Hill, London. BT is also running trials of super-fast broadband access via Fibre to the home (FTTH) which can deliver speeds of up to 100 Mb/s. Trials are currently taking place in Ebbsfleet.

Super-fast broadband will enable customers to watch multiple HD TV channels. They will also be able to upload content such as videos a great deal quicker. Overall they will enjoy a far richer broadband experience.

BT plans to make superfast broadband (the vast majority via FTTC) available to one million homes and businesses by spring 2010 with an ambition to connect 40 per cent of homes and businesses by 2012.

BT Retail will provide the service directly to end-users while Openreach will make it available as a wholesale access product for communications providers. CPs that have bought BT’s WBC product will be able to upgrade to a fibre-based, super-fast broadband solution, seamlessly.

Ethernet

A ubiquitous local area network technology which has subsequently become a wide area network technology, an access technology, a technology which underpins virtual private networks (VPNs) over which businesses can run applications or have applications run for them, and business-class connectivity.

As an access technology, BT has rolled-out 614 ethernet access nodes throughout the UK so far – the largest in the UK. This means 90 per cent of business premises are within five kilometres of an ethernet node. The closer a business is to a node, the cheaper the cost of a required access circuit to connect to the node becomes. In addition, Openreach has recently reduced prices of these circuits by a significant amount.

Typically, ethernet is a fibre-based solution offering users 10 Mb/s or 1 Gb/s and above. BT does offer some copper-based solutions as well that run below 10 Mb/s – known as Ethernet First Mile.

Earlier this year BT launched Etherflow, its point-to-point ethernet connectivity solution.

21CN platform

Faster broadband, super-fast broadband and ethernet are underpinned by the 21CN platform. It's an enabling platform for all three broadband access variants described above. It provides the core and the backhaul networks for each. Increasingly, it is being used by CPs as an open platform allowing different providers to interface their own developments with the platform as well as other providers.