24mbs in the UK from Be

[Hanz™]

[news=http://bethere.co.uk/images/logo_star.gif]A giant step for Internet kind:
‘Be’ to launch 24 meg broadband in the UK – BeThere.co.uk

June 30, 2005

Brand new internet service provider Be is on the verge of launching 24 meg download speeds – the fastest in the UK and triple the speed of the current leading competitor. Using ADSL2+ technology that doubles the download bandwidth, together with LLU (Local Loop Unbundling), Be’s new service is a revolutionary overhaul of the UK broadband market. The rollout will start in London, quickly expanding to the rest of the UK.

For Boris Ivanovic, co-founder of Be, this will be the second time he has broken the broadband speed record. In April 2001, he purchased Sweden’s fledging ISP Bostream and launched 26 meg broadband – growing its customer base dramatically from 2,000 to 100,000, and from a $1m to $55m revenue, in just three years.

"The deregulation of the market makes this a very exciting time for the UK and Be is here to make the most of it, offering customers the full capability of ADSL2+ from launch," said Boris. ”There is no reason to drag out the increase in speed and launch in steps of 1 meg or 2 meg when the capability is there to offer the maximum speeds available – which is what Be is all about."

Be has the benefit of building a completely new network based on the latest technologies, allowing it to provide a higher quality product than anyone else in the UK. The company is able to deliver its dramatic speed increase at a remarkably low cost due to Ethernet backhauling and aggregation. It is also able to provide a better service than most, through the use of a highly customisable network infrastructure.

Be is the first operator in the UK to use Alcatel’s latest generation DSLAM (the Alcatel 7302 Intelligent Services Access Manager), as well as aggregation and routing equipment which will give Be the ability to offer the latest products and services that will change the face of broadband in the UK.

"Alcatel's innovation in research and development and our work with the standardization bodies gives Be access to the most powerful broadband technology," said Michel Rahier, in charge of Alcatel’s fixed communications activities. "Be has a very exciting proposition for the UK market and has promising plans for their evolution towards a user-centric triple play service offering."

Source: http://bethere.co.uk/[/news]

[Hanz™]

Damn, am I the only person here that gives a damn about this, and I don't even live in London.
It shows things to come.
An unlimited service that is gonna cost less than £30 and according to some other guy is very likely to be a symmetric line ie. 24mbps upload as well as download.
I mean thats damn good, you won't have to worry about keeping a good ratio on bittorrent with that, and you could quite easily run a FTP server on that mee thinks.

[vivitron 15]

be interested to see what sort of caps they place on it, and the reliability of it - i could get 8mb from ukonline where i am, but ive read some bad reports about them on adslguide.org

besides, i would love to see the distance to the exchange that still allows >20mb...im guessing you need to be pretty close.

i think that symmetric would be pushing it - im sure the cap is more like 8mb (from memory of reading stg on adslguide)

[Ma5t3rM1nD]

Same thing is being trailled in Australia now

[Hanz™]

be interested to see what sort of caps they place on it, and the reliability of it - i could get 8mb from ukonline where i am, but ive read some bad reports about them on adslguide.org

besides, i would love to see the distance to the exchange that still allows >20mb...im guessing you need to be pretty close.

i think that symmetric would be pushing it - im sure the cap is more like 8mb (from memory of reading stg on adslguide)

They specify NO CAPS on their website.
It is from the same company that runs in Sweden Bostream I think, thats why somebody mentioned that it might be symmetric.

[{I}{K}{E}]

we already have 20mb/s here in the Netherlands (adsl2)
but they cap the upload speed @ 1mb/s

[prometeus]

The BE offering will be nowhere near symetric and prob will include a download cap later.
What a crap site man... all I could find was this blond midget..
<img>http://bethere.co.uk/HI_RES/johanna_col.jpg</img>

[Joakim Agren]

I already have a 24Mbit/s ADSL2+ service provided by Bredbandsbolaget(B2 Broadband). I was upgraded to it a few weeks ago from Bostreams 2.5Mbit/s download and 768Kbit/s upload service Xstream.(Bostream does not exist anymore and was sold to Bredbandsbolaget Swedens second largest ISP now with 400000 customers). Regarding this ADSL2+ service. The maximum download speed for the ADSL2+ standard is 24Mbit/s then with a upload of maximum 1Mbit/s. But an ISP can choose to lower the maximum download speed to 20Mbit/s and instead offer a 3Mbit/s upload speed. Unfortunatelly this is not an option as Skanova(owned by the government and Telia Swedens largest ISP) the company that owns the Internet backbone in Sweden and the Phone stations forbidd ISP's to currently offer more then 1Mbit/s uploads to end customers.

The ISP's in Sweden describes the service as up to 24Mbit/s download speed because the speed is dependent by the distance to the phone station. The service up to 24Mbit/s is offered for customers living up to 2500 meters(8196 feet) from the station . The speed is dependent of the distance and condition of the copper cables in the ground. You can expect up to 17-19Mbit/s download speed if you live in a larger city with high quality cables and the distance is more more then 1000 Meters(3230 feet) but under 1500 meters(4900 feet), if you live 1500 meters(4900 feet) up to 2500 Meters(8196 feet) from the station you get between 17Mbit/s and down to 10Mbit/s. I live 1840 meters(6033 feet) from mine and gets to enjoy speeds between 12Mbit/s and 14Mbit/s download and have 1.06Mbit/s upload speed. Thats a speed that I am quite happy with!. To get around 22Mbit/s and 24Mbit/s you have to live very close no more then 450 meters( 1500 feet) which very few people do. In Sweden we pay the same amount regardless of distance and achieved speed as the service is marketed as up to 24Mbit/s but we are spoiled here in Sweden. Bandwidth is cheap and I only pay $50 a month for my connection there is no download caps and I can use my line as much as I want!. People living further then 2500 meters is not offered ADSL2+ instead they get the regualr ADSL with speeds up to 8Mbit/s and uploads up to 1Mbit/s(true speeds is between 5-7Mbit/s download and 800-900 Kbit/s upload)

There really is a difference in experience compared to my old 2.5Mbit/s especially during video streams!. I have only had this a few weeks and am a happy speed freak !

[tesco]

There really is a difference in experience compared to my old 2.5Mbit/s especially during video streams!. I have only had this a few weeks and am a happy speed freak !

I can't wait until we have those kind of speeds here.



How much do you pay btw?

[jetje]

my current 8mb down is fine... only reason to upgrade is when the upload speeds get better then the current 1mb.

In the netherlands 20mb down 1 mb up, is offered for € 39,- (27,-GBP, US$ 48,-) and you get the bonus tv setop box (with free live footballgames) an telephone... Called 'triple play'... no datalimits! But i have none of those on my current line as well.

http://www.versatel.nl/