British Broadband Picks Up The Pace

BT Broadband is to double its speed for free from later this week. The ISP is to introduce a new, 2Mbps package from this Thursday, February 17, for home customers. Existing 1Mbps customers will also be upgraded to the new service over the coming weeks, with 512Kbps users moved up to 1Mbps, if their lines support the higher rate. It's not all good news though - the services are capped at anything from 1GB to 30GB a month.

The changes affect both BT Broadband and BT Yahoo! Broadband customers, which covers some 36% of the UK broadband market. Duncan Ingram, BT's managing director for broadband and internet srevices, said 90% of customers would see their speed increase. "These increases will give people the opportunity to do a lot more with their broadband connections," he added.

Mr Ingram also described the caps as at "extremely generous" levels. "For what we are seeing in the market place - they are really not an issue," he added. The allowances aren't currently enforced but they are expected to be brought in in the summer.

Despite the speed increase, which mirrors a similar move by AOL earlier this year, Britain is still a long way behind many countries when it comes to high-speed access. In the Far East, speeds above 40Mbps are common - and elsewhere in Europe, speeds over 10Mbps have become the norm.

View: BT Broadband