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BT pledges £6 billion for superfast broadband and 4G upgrades
In its first set of financial results since it absorbed EE, the UK's biggest mobile operator, BT has made a fresh commitment to improving broadband and 4G connectivity across Britain. After seeing profits rise more than nine percent to £3.4 billion, the company says it is to spend £6 billion on improving its services, which will include extending its superfast broadband coverage to 12 million homes and delivering LTE to 95 percent of the UK by 2020.
BT's latest broadband trial will more than treble download speeds
For the fastest broadband speeds, you normally need fibre optic cables running directly into your home. While that's still the perfect solution, BT will soon be trialling a new technology that could give those on copper a much-needed speed boost. Fibre To The Distribution Point (FTTdp), commonly referred to as "G.fast," uses a wider frequency band to increase data speeds over copper. It works best over short distances, so usually a node is required somewhere between the cabinet and your home to extend the reach of the faster fibre. As ISPreview reports, BT is beginning its first residential trial next month in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, with Gosforth, Newcastle and Swansea to follow. It should be able to deliver "a few hundred megabits per second" at first, although BT says 500 Mbps should be achievable in the future. Given Fibre To The Cabinet (FTTC) normally tops out at 80 Mbps, this will be a huge jump for households still waiting on full-blown fibre.
BT says faster broadband is coming, but it could take 10 years
Everyone in the UK wants super-fast broadband in their home. The most reliable and effective solution right now is fibre, which every internet provider uses as the backbone for their network nationwide. But there's a problem -- the fibre often stops at the street cabinet, and many customers are limited by the slower copper cables running up their driveways. While fibre can be installed for the final leg, it's expensive, so companies such as BT are looking for new ways to give their traditional copper a speed boost. One approach is "G.fast," a technology that uses a wider frequency band to increase performance. It works best over shorter distances, although rural homes can still be supported via remote nodes and distribution points, which bring the fibre connection closer to the property.
