UK Online unveils 8Mb broadband

UK Online has launched a whopping 8Mbps broadband service, offering surfers a connection speed 120 times faster than dial-up.


Called Broadband 8000, the service costs £39.99 a month and has a £50 connection fee. A wireless Ethernet router costs £69.99.



The service is available through local loop unbundling (LLU) at 230 BT exchanges where network provider EasyNet has installed its own DSL equipment. Availability is limited to four exchanges today, but UK Online expects the service to be available to 4.4 million households by the start of next year.



Chris Stening, general manager at UK Online, said: “We're really excited by this. The service is phenomenally quick and is likely to suit those that share their broadband connection. It makes streaming video look like TV.”



According to UK Online, in order to get the full speed customers will need to be within 2km of an exchange which means around half of homes won't be able to get it.



"We are very honest about distance degradation and before people sign up we notify them what speed we expect them to get. If we are not able to guarantee at least 2Mb, we won't sell it," added Stening.



Broadband 8000 does not have a fixed download restriction, but UK Online said it considers "regular or recurring data transfer in excess of 4GB per day to be an example of excessive use".



Earlier this month, UK Online launched Broadband 1000 - a 1Mbps service costing £34.99 per month with free set-up and modem. The ISP hopes to add voice calls and TV/video on demand services next year.

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I'm literally 0.5k from my exchange and I'm on 2MB but I don't think my exchange is enabled yet, so I've registered my interest.

Let me know if anyone can get it in there area.


Samurai :ph34r:

8mb for £40 is great. seems it will be available in my area february. :-)

UKers finally get decent speed broadband for a decent price...nice :D

Yea I'm paying the same price for 2MB with Bulldog, and I thought that was good. Hopefully, by Feb, my exchange will be enabled.

Anyone else checked to see if they can get it?

Damn, keep up America!! I want 8Mbps! :(

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If I lived in Japan, I could have have a 26Mbit DSL connection via Yahoo! BroadBand (Y! BB). Holy crap!

What's it cost, you wonder? A bit less than my 1.5Mbit DSL or 3Mbit Cable in the US.

Think about it this way. In the 20-30 seconds it normally takes to establish a dial-up connection and get an IP address, you could have downloaded 60MB worth of data.

If you don't live close to the central office, you have to suffer with the slower DSL connections: 12Mbit, 10Mbit, or 6Mbit.

Oh, the pain...

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from a random blog

http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/001030.html

See this is why when Japan is dedicated to doing something, they do it.

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Broadband 8000 does not have a fixed download restriction, but UK Online said it considers "regular or recurring data transfer in excess of 4GB per day to be an example of excessive use".

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hmmm, if you got 8Mb connection you're going to be downloading far more than 4Gb a day I'd have thought

Some people actually work, and as such are away from their house for at least 10 hours of a working day. Sure, pound it like there's no tomorrow, but 3.5GB a day, I can live with that.