BT extends reach of ADSL

Million more can now get it

By Tim Richardson • Get more from this author

Posted in Small Biz, 18th August 2004 12:16 GMT

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BT is extending the range of its 512k service, bringing more than one million homes and business into the ADSL broadband fold.

Until now, anyone further than around 6km from their DSL-enabled BT telephone exchange was probably unable to hook-up to the service. Following successful trials in Milton Keynes and in the Scottish Highlands, BT is now confident that just about anyone connected to a DSL-enabled exchange will now be able to get broadband. From September 6, 2004, it's ditching this limit and also increasing the range of its 1Mb service from 4km to around 6km.

According to BT, this means that all but 0.2 per cent of homes and businesses connected to an ADSL exchange should be able to get broadband.

Although confident about the extended reach of ADSL, BT also expects that one in five people living beyond the former limit will need a visit by a BT engineer to make sure the service can work. BT won't charge for the visit, but it accepts that, in a "small number of cases" it still may not be possible to provide a reliable broadband service.

Separately, BT today confirmed that there are now more than three million wholesale DSL lines in the UK. The last million was notched up in just six months as 6,000 punters a day sign up to broadband. ®