BT have removed the distance limit from key exchanges, increasing its broadband reach by another million businesses and homes, by improving the line loss profile of its connections.
After trialling the move in Milton Keynes and the Highlands, the telco will be offering 512kbs ADSL services beyond the former 6km distance limit from the 6th September.
BT now say that 99.8% of lines connected to a broadband-enabled exchange should be able to receive at least a 512kbs. The limit for 1mps has been raised from 4km from an exchange to 6km. BT are projecting that next summer will see 99.4% of the UK covered by broadband – around the same percentage of the population that get good quality analogue TV coverage.
Alison Ritchie, BT’s chief broadband officer said: “By pushing the boundaries on broadband reach we are building on our exchange upgrade rollout programme which means the remaining gaps in the broadband Britain jigsaw are getting smaller and smaller.”
BT’s statement
Published by
Fraser Lovatt
Fraser Lovatt has spent the last fifteen years working in publishing, TV and the Internet in various capacities, and believes that they will be seperate platforms for at least a while yet. His main interests at the moment are exploring where Linux is taking home entertainment and how technology is conferring technical skills on more and more people.
Fraser Lovatt was born in the same year that 2001: A Space Odyssey was delighting and confusing people in the cinemas, and developed a lifelong love of technology as soon as he realised that things could be taken apart, sometimes put back together again, but mostly left in bits or made into something the original designer hadn't quite planned upon.
At school he was definitely in the ZX Spectrum/Magpie/BMX camp, rather than the BBC Micro/Blue Peter/well-behaved group. This is all deeply ironic as he later went on to spend nine years working at the BBC.
After a few years of working as a bookseller in Scotland, ("Back when it was actually a skilled profession" he'll tell anyone still listening), he moved to England for reasons he can't quite explain adequately to himself. After a couple of publishing jobs punctuated by sporadic bursts of travelling and photography came the aforementioned nine years at the BBC where he specialised in internet technologies and video.
These days his primary interests are Java, Linux, videogames and pies - and if they're not candidates for convergence, then what is?
View all posts by Fraser Lovatt