BT Retail last week revealed pricing on its fiber based broadband service it is now calling BT Infinity. It will offer download speeds of up to 40Mbps for as little as £19.99 a month, which it says its £7.47 cheaper that Virgin Media’s XXL top end service. The upstream speed is 10Mbps, which it says is 6 times faster than Virgin Media’s fastest upload speeds. It’s tone is clearly that it wants to take business from Virgin Media, which uses cable TV technology and which itself is about to upgrade to DOCSIS 3.0, which offers yet faster speeds.
BT Infinity is being pushed as being for households with multiple computers or other internet devices capable of delivering multiple HD TV signals, such as those from BT Vision’s IPTV hybrid pay TV service.
Gavin Patterson, chief executive officer, BT Retail, said: ‘The internet is essential to our customers’ lives and they are demanding more and more as richer and even more compelling services become available. BT Infinity gives customers the capacity and reliability they need in an instant and at a great value price they can afford. We want to give our customers the best possible online experience and are committed to rolling out super-fast speeds across the UK.’
So far BT has only held a trial of the new technology for customers in Muswell Hillm, North London, Whitchurch and part of Glasgow. But BT is now saying that 4 million homes will be in reach of these lines by December 2010. Long term BT says it will reach at least 40% of the UK, some 10 million homes by summer 2012 and it is spending £1.5 billion ($2.4 billion) on the roll-out. BT will also have a fiber offering for business.
BT Infinity will cost either £20 or £25, both offering 40 Mbps download and the main difference is that the cheaper line will have just 2 mbps upload and a 20 GB data cap and the more expensive one 10 Mbps upload and unlimited data.