March 29, 2011
Plusnet are launching fibre broadband with prices starting at just £16.49 per month.
Plusnet (www.plus.net) are launching “Value Fibre” and “Extra Fibre” broadband packages which will be available form the 19th April 2011. The cheapest fibre broadband package, the “Value Fibre” will offer broadband speeds up to 40Mb with a 40GB usage limit at a cost of £16.49 per month, the “Extra Fibre” package will also offer up to 40Mb broadband speeds but will have 120GB available usage and will cost £21.49 per month (both packages cost £10 more than their respective standard broadband deal).
Also supplied is a new wireless router (£4.99 delivery charge) and installation and activation are free when the fibre broadband is taken with a Home Phone package otherwise a charge of £50 will be charged.
Those signing up to Plusnet Fibre broadband will also be subject to an 18 month contract as standard. Although bother BT Infinity and Virgin Media have introductory offers which have cheaper fibre broadband for an limited period this deal from Plusnet is currently the only sub £200 fibre broadband deal on the market.
Plusnet (who are owned by BT) will be using BT’s fibre network to deliver their fibre optic broadband. This network is mainly being offered as a FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) service which requires copper wires to transmit the data the last part of the journey from the cabinet to the home, BT’s network is aiming to cover 66% of the UK by 2015.
Anyone wanting to sign up for Plusnet Fibre broadband can do so by visiting www.plus.net.
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December 15, 2010
BT’s Race To Infinity campaign has seen the town of Innerleithen which is on the Scottish borders move into 4th place on the nationwide poll for areas to receive fibre optic broadband from BT.
The BT “Race To Infinity” campaign is a national poll that gives towns across the country the chance to vote for their town to have the BT fibre optic network installed there by early 2012. The campaign is free for residents to vote for their area with the 31st December the last chance for people to cast their vote. A minimum of 1,000 votes for a town are required to be eligible for the “competition” with BT choosing the top 5 places with the most votes to extend their fibre network to.
Innerleithen currently nearly 75% of the community having registered their vote for having the fibre optic network to be deployed there.
The current standings are as follows:
- Caxton, Cambridgeshire
1,803 votes
89.48%
- Blewbury, Oxfordshire
1,106 votes
89.48% of residents
- Madingley, Cambridgeshire
1,729 votes
81.1% of residents
- Innerleithen, Scottish Borders
1,465 votes
74.9% of residents
- Casteton, Newport
1,160 votes
73.09% of residents
The “Race To Infinity” campaign was run to bring fibre to more rural areas that were not on BT’s initial plans to deploy fibre to. The poll will help BT plot areas that show great interest in fibre optic broadband and where it may not have originally been considered commercially viable originally this could change BT’s view.
For the most of the country BT will be deploying FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) which will offer fibre broadband speeds up to 40Mb.
To view the map or to register a vote for your area (if you aren’t in an area that BT is already planning on deploying to) then visit www.racetoinfinity.bt.com and register by December 31st.
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December 8, 2010
Virgin Media’s 100Mb broadband has now gone live for 4 lucky towns which make them the places with the fastest broadband in the UK.
 The 4 towns of Heckmondwike, Farnborough, Colchester and Barry in South Wales were the initial 4 places to have the new “ultra-fast” Virgin Media 100Mb fibre broadband go live. Along with the 100Mb download speeds it will also offer 10Mb upload speeds which is faster than much of the country can even manage as a download speed.
The new 100Mb broadband does require a new N standard router to deal with the increased speeds, however the router is future proof as it can deal with potential broadband speeds of 400Mb which may come in the future.
The cost for the Virgin 100Mb fibre optic broadband is £45 per month as a stand alone product although this is reduced to £35 per month when it is also taken along with a phone line from Virgin Media at £12.24 per month. Installation of the service is £40.
It is expected that the new service will be rolled out to the whole of the Virgin Media network by around mid-2012 which would cover around half of the UK.
Not to be left too far behind, BT are to launch their own 110Mb broadband service (conveniently slightly faster than Virgin Media) around March 2011. However, this will only be available to customers who receive FTTH/P (Fibre To The Home/Premises) from BT, although BT’s roll out of fibre optics in the main will be FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) which will offer a download speed of up to 40Mb.
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October 19, 2010
The UK broadband network could soon hit the “capacity crunch” according to research done by the University of Southampton.
 In the paper, written by David Richardson of the University of Southampton’s Optoelectronics Research Centre, he detailed laboratory results which showed the data rates at more than half the ultimate limit that fibre optic cables can achieve and goes on to say that there is an urgent need for research and development of higher bandwidth fibre optic cables to be made.
Speaking to BBC News (here) Mr Richardson said:
“The thought that the current fibre technology has infinite capacity is not true – we are beginning to hit the fundamental limits of the current technology”
“We need to be looking at the next big breakthrough to allow us to continue to scale as we have traditionally done.”
He said there are more increases to be had, for instance, in the way the light signals are encoded, but that “radical” gains will likely come from changes in the fibres themselves.
“If you gain a factor of two in bandwidth by developing a whole new amplifier technology, that’s perhaps two or three years of capacity growth. To get radical changes – to get factors of 100 or 1000 – it’s going to be extremely demanding.
“It’s likely we’re going to have to go right back to the fundamentals of the optics, the actual light pipes. And if you want to develop the next generation of cable, you want to be doing that 10 years in advance, not for tomorrow.“
In the last 10 years we have massively seen the way people use the Internet change, it is now classed as a standard part of peoples day to day lives and more and more high bandwidth applications are getting supplied via our broadband connections, such as streaming movies or live TV through the iPlayer or YouTube for starters.
Another interesting thought that he put down in the report was that:
“We may all increasingly need to get used to the idea that bandwidth – just like water and energy – is a valuable commodity to be used wisely.“
Despite the roll out of fibre broadband across the UK it does make slightly worrying reading that potentially the new fibre broadband network being deployed may not be quite as future proof as we all would like.
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October 4, 2010
BT are launching a new campaign called the “Race to Infinity” where rural communities can register their demand for fibre broadband.
The nationwide competition allows people to register their interest in wanting fibre broadband in their community and the top 5 voted places with the highest interest will receive fibre broadband by early 2012.
 The campaign is running from now until the end of the year and will be used to help map out where the demand for next generation fibre optic broadband is greatest so that BT can see where to focus their efforts in deploying their new fibre network.
Not only will the results mean that 5 exchanges jump to the front of the queue for receiving fibre optic broadband but also exchanges and areas that were considered commercially un-viable may well find their way into BT’s plans for future deployment.
Ed Vaizey, the Communications Minister said:
“Whenever I travel around the UK I hear the same message: people want access to superfast broadband in their communities. I warmly welcome any initiative that will lead to private sector investment in fibre networks, and applaud the way BT are engaging consumers to ensure that investment reaches the people who want it the most.“
BT are already investing £2.5 billion in their next generation fibre network which will see fibre broadband available to 4 million premises by the end of 2010 and another 12 million premises by 2015.
One slight downside is for towns or villages that are on exchanges that have less than 1,000 premises as the minimum number of votes required is 1,000 before they can be considered for the competition. This is a downside for those areas where this competition could really make a huge difference, that said providing they do show a healthy demand then it could see them added to the list of future areas to look at enabling where previously they may have been classed as commercially un-viable.
For some people the site could provide good news already when you cast your vote and inform you that you are already in an area where BT Infinity is going to be deployed!
BT’s own fibre optic broadband product is called “BT Infinity” which would also explain why the competition was given the name that it was.
To register your interest for your town/village on the “Race To Infinity” visit www.racetoinfinity.bt.com
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October 1, 2010
Fibre broadband is set to cover Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly in a £132 million project announced by BT.
BT are investing in a £132 million project along with Cornwall Council and supported by European funding that will see 80-90% of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly covered by fibre broadband with broadband speeds up to 100Mb by 2014.
It is expected that around half of the fibre optic network that will be deployed to homes and businesses will be connected with FTTP (Fibre To The Premises/Home) which can offer broadband speeds up to 100Mb. The rest will eb connected by Fibre To The Cabinet (FTTC) which can offer broadband speeds up to 40Mb and is the type of fibre broadband connection that is being installed around the rest of the country with the £2.5 billion investment BT are putting into their fibre optic network.
BT think that by councils partnering with them and funding being provided both by public and private money to fund the roll out of fibre then this id what is able to be achieved, with Cornwall likely to be one of the fastest broadband counties in the country and the world after the investment. BT are putting in £78.5 million with the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) putting in around £53.5 million.
Ed Vaizey the Communications Minister said:
“This project is very exciting news for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. It shows how the public and private sectors can work together to deliver local solutions to local problems. Households and businesses in this largely rural area can now look forward to having one of the best broadband connections in the world, thanks to Cornwall Council’s vision, European funding and BT’s investment and expertise. The Government wants the UK to have the best broadband network in Europe by 2015, so today’s announcement is a big step towards that goal.“
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July 27, 2010
Virgin Media are to trial fibre broadband delivered over existing electricity poles in the Welsh village of Crumlin in Caerphilly.
 Although Virgin Media have deployed fibre over ground before in the village of Woolhampton in Berkshire that was done using purpose built infrastructure, however this aerial deployment in Crumlin will be the first time that existing infrastructure will have been used.
The deal between Virgin Media and Surf Telecoms, who are a Western Power Distribution company means that Virgin Media can potentially reach over 1 million new homes across South West England and South and West Wales as this is where the electricity infrastructure covers.
These fibre trials will mean that users of Crumlin will be able to receive fibre broadband up to 50Mb and also access Virgin Media’s TV packages.
Virgin Media’s executive director of broadband, Jon James said:
“We’re already bringing broadband speeds of up to 50Mb and, soon 100Mb, to over half of all UK homes and are pushing the boundaries to ensure that homes right across the UK benefit from ultrafast broadband. Working in partnership with companies like Surf Telecoms, we can more rapidly and efficiently expand the reach of fibre optic networks to towns, villages and communities right across the UK.“
Not only does utilising the electricity poles with an aerial deployment mean that Virgin Media can deploy their fibre broadband to new areas more cheaply than it would cost to dig up roads but it is also a new revenue stream for the companies who own the electricity poles.
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July 15, 2010
A “Broadband summit” is taking place today in London, to talk about ways to get fast broadband out to every part of the UK.
A pledge to make Britain the fastest broadband nation in Europe by 2015 has also been made and that a minimum broadband speed of 2Mb should be available to every home in Britain.
However, the Government are not likely to be offering the broadband industry big pots of money to help fund the roll out, there is still the £175 million left over from the digital switchover that is to be used and since the government scrapped Labours 50p per month “broadband tax” that was to be used to help fund next generation broadband and the fact that as a country we have a huge deficit with money the government can’t afford to start spending.
BT are investing £2.5bn of their own money to fund the roll out of fibre broadband to two thirds of the UK, however they say that around £2bn more will be needed to reach the remaining third of the country. These remaining areas being areas where it is not financially viable for BT to fund the roll out themselves.
The CEO of BT Openreach, Steve Robertson said:
“As a society we need to make our minds up about what is an essential element of our social fabric. Today not having broadband makes people feel deprived.“
The Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt said:
“There is currently nothing to stop telecoms or utility companies reaching commercial agreements to share their infrastructure, but very few agreements currently exist.
Before we embark on legislation or start committing scarce public resources, we need to explore these cost-effective ways of achieving our aims so I want to hear from companies about their proposals and willingness to work towards mutually beneficial commercial arrangements.”
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July 8, 2010
BT has chosen ECI Telecom as a strategic partner to help them with their roll out of fibre broadband across the UK.
The deal will see BT Openreach using ECI Telecoms Hi-FOCuS Multi-Service Acees Node (MSAN) which will allow BT to support other broadband providers using the network, a bit like Local Loop Unbundling currently offers. They will also be making use of ECI’s 1Net framework which is designed to help the move to Next Generation Access and also to help with scalability in the future when greater bandwidth will be needed.
BT Openreach’s CEO, Steve Robertson said:
“With ECI as a strategic partner for this very advanced carrier-of-carriers architecture, we are able to upgrade our infrastructure offerings to Communications Providers and guarantee the provision of equivalency to all our customers. ECI’s offerings are in line with our vision of a straightforward, more integrated and competitive network, simplifying management and supporting the optimization of our next-generation access network in an environmentally-friendly and responsible way.“
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June 23, 2010
Yesterdays emergency budget by the new Government has finally confirmed that the “broadband tax” that Labour wanted to bring in has been scrapped.
Labours 50p per month broadband tax was to be charged to every phone line in the UK with the money raised used to help fund the roll out of fibre optic broadband across the UK.
The new Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne said:
“I am happy to be able to abolish this new duty before it is even introduced.
Instead, we will support private broadband investment, including to rural areas, in part with funding from the digital switchover under-spend within the TV licence fee.“
The broadband tax would have cost those with a phone line around £6 per year, with those with more than one telephone lines having to pay for each line they have. Labour figured it would raise between £175m-£200m per year to help fund the roll out of Next Generation fibre broadband, however the Conservatives are going to use the extra money that has been left over from the digital switchover to help fund getting this fibre broadband out into rural areas where it is not financially feasible for companies such as BT to fund the deployment themselves.
It is estimated that there is around £300 million left in the digital switchover fund, with many not believing that this will be enough to make sure all rural ares get broadband.
There will be a slight rise potentially on broadband prices with VAT rising 2.5% up to 20% which is due to come into effect on 4th January 2011.
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