BT opens 21CN to ISPs

Posted on 30 Apr 2008 at 13:44

BT is now admitting ISPs to its new 21CN high-speed broadband network. Service providers can adopt BT's Wholesale Broadband Connect (WBC) to provide ADSL2+ services at the UK's largest exchanges, those serving around or in excess of one million homes and businesses.

WBC will be progressively introduced, with some 10 million homes and businesses covered by the spring of 2009. The ADSL2+ equipment that it runs on supports a theoretical maximum speed of 24Mb/sec, though this is rarely, if ever, achieved, and the performance drops sharply the further the end user is from the exchange. BT says that connections will deliver the highest possible stable speeds they can support.

Its own model of a typical ADSL2+ connection at a distance of 2.5km from the local exchange shows speeds of only 5-6Mb/sec - just a third of the theoretical maximum, and no better than many people experience today.

Broadband users connected to an enabled exchange can check the maximum stable speed that their line can support at btwholesale.com/adslchecker, while Samknows Broadband has a list of enabled exchanges, numbering just 39 at present.

Author: Simon Aughton

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