This technical limitation, which is more severe than the existing restraint on the availability of 512Kbps ADSL, means that more UK residents could soon find that their location has a big bearing on the speed of Internet connection available to them.
BT Wholesale announced earlier this week that it will begin a six-week trial of a 1Mbps ADSL product called IPStream Home1000 in October. This will be available from any broadband-enabled exchange. Any ISP can join in the trial, and there's no limit on the number of customers that can take part.
According to BT, this product is "aimed at consumers looking to upgrade to a higher bandwidth. It will also be an attractive solution for the more demanding first time broadband user."
But anyone who falls into these categories had better hope that they don't live too far from their telephone exchange. IPStream Home1000 will only work on a phone line that is no longer than 3.5km.
Today's 512Kbps ADSL packages work over a longer distance, because they are "rate adaptive", which pushes their maximum range up to 6km (it was previously 5.5km). This means that some 97 percent of homes within a broadband-enabled area can get the technology.
IPStream Home1000, though, is not rate adaptive.A BT spokesman told ZDNet UK that this means that "approximately 70 per cent of households within enabled exchange areas" will be able to receive 1Mb broadband down their phone line. He added that he wasn't aware of any plans to add rate adaption to the IPStream Home1000 product.
Today, BT has broadband-enabled more than 1,500 local telephone exchanges, enough to give access to ADSL to around 70 percent of the population, or close to 18 million households. The 3.5km restriction means that some 5 million of these 18 million homes won't be able to sign up for IPStream Home1000.
BT believes its ADSL coverage will reach 90 percent of the population within a couple of years, raising the number of homes connected to a broadband-enabled exchange to around 22.5 million. Then, the 3.5km restriction on IPStream Home1000 will means that up to 7 million people won't be able to get the 1Mb broadband.
With almost a third of the UK population unable to get any form of broadband from BT at the moment, being restricted to a 512Kbps Web connection doesn't sound like much of a hardship. It is inevitable, though, that the launch and take-up of innovative and bandwidth-hungry applications and services in the future will make faster broadband more of a priority.
1Mbps consumer broadband packages are already available in some parts of the country, from telcos such as Bulldog, Telewest and NTL. Telewest revealed earlier this year that 10 percent of its customers shifted up to 1Mbps once it made this faster bandwidth available -- a sign that IPStream Home1000 is likely to be popular with today's ADSL home users.
IPStream Home1000 will cost ISPs £23 (excluding VAT) per month. This is about £10 per month more than they are charged for the equivalent 512Kbps wholesale product, suggesting that users will be charged up to £40 per month for the faster service.
Talkback
WHY IS ALL THIS REPORTED SO NEGATIVELY?
It's always been magic to get DSL down copper which is also carrying voice and was put in years ago. There is no short term economic alternative unless you have cable.
Optimising this so the people who can get the better service do so instead of Lowest Common Denominator is also great for the country as a whole.
If you live in the sticks its normal for new infrastructure to take time to get there , if ever, the last things were TV and Mobile. This is not any surprise.
The real news is from BT's efforts to do more magic for those that it can.
If the trade media can't report things in an even handed way what chance have the mas media got of plagiarising and mis interpreting it effectively?
I'm not a big BT fan but sniping at its efforts at optimum deployments is completely counter productive.
Telewest offers a 1Mb service ? They offer a 2Mb service and I've been usin it for well over 6 months now! Get with the times!
The best thing I could ever have done was ditch BT!
Being one of the many who cannot reveive broadband of any kind and living almost next door to an exchange, I am bitter and angry at not being offered a connection while BT ignores us even more in search for bigger profits.
I look forward to a competetor who offers a service to all.
Forget BT!
After being told for 2 years that within the next 6 months ADSL would be available in my area, I finally gave up and opted for NTL. Best thing I ever did.
I've heard their tech help is not so good but being able to sort that side out myself I've never had to use it.
I've only got 600K but 1M has been available for a long time.
Japan is renowned for being expensive, but when I was there earlier this year I found that my colleague gets 16M for less/month than my 600K. The whole of Europe is well behind the times.
NTL & BT both tell me that my area is "Not yet served by broadband". For Pete's sake, we live in West London, not on Mars. When will the Govt make it an obligation of their licences that these retards make ALL of the country's major cities broadband-served, and no excuses ?
We citizens should like Britain to stay out of the Third World for a while. With Government and industry planning like this, it won't just be call centres that will move to Bantustan.
G Arken