100Mb fibre broadband from BT next year

BT Openreach are to launch a 110Mb fibre broadband from March 2011 as part of their Generic Ethernet Access Fibre To The Premises (GEA FTTP) products.

The news of this 110Mb fibre broadband from BT is probably not that far linked to the fact that Virgin Media are to launch their own 100Mb fibre broadband by the end of this year. When you consider that BT had originally been planning on offering a 100Mb fibre broadband package to it’s new fibre broadband network anyway it would seem that upping this by just 10Mb more than Virgin Media could be done so they can advertise at offering the fastest fibre broadband in the country come next year.

A spokesman for BT said that:

“Communications providers advertising 100Mbps, that’s exactly what consumers are going to get. You’re going to get 100Mbps, it’s not an ‘up to’ service.“

However, this speed is not expected to be available 24 hours a day, in times where the network is flooded a prioritised 20Mb speed would be available per user.

The breakdown of wholesale prices for the 110Mb broadband are pretty much the same as they are for the 100Mb broadband from BT, so it would make sense that BT are probably just going to replace the 100Mb broadband with their 110Mb offering.

The wholesale prices from BT Openreach for the 110Mb fibre broadband are £21.54 per month (£258 per year) plus a £75+vat connection charge.

The major advantage that Virgin Media have currently over BT is the fact that they already have around half of the UK covered instead of a relatively small amount that BT have on their FTTH/P (Fibre to the Home/Premises). On the war of “fastest broadband” it is not to be forgotten that Virgin Media are already looking at technology to be able to offer broadband speeds up to 200Mb.

The trials of this new 110Mb fibre broadband form BT are underway in Highams Park in North London and Bradwell Abbey in Milton Keynes.