BT’s ‘High Fibre’ Diet

BT’s declaration to supply super-fast fibre networks to 10 million homes by 2012 has caused much consternation and speculation in the telecoms sector.

A number of major players have backed BT’s incentive, but questioned its motives where market share is concerned.

Will your ISP adopt this new technology, or be left lagging behind? Here’s a round up of how four leading ISPs reacted to the prospect of superfast 100Mb networks, and described their level of participation in this movement.

O2 Broadband

O2 is tentatively considering the option of supplying 100Mb to homes via BT’s proposed fibre network, but needs concrete promises from BT before it gets the cheque book out.

An O2 spokesperson told ZDnet.co.uk the following:

“We need clear and unambiguous regulation in place before we start shelling out huge sums of money.”

Be Broadband

Be Broadband’s Oli White is similarly wary of a BT monopoly, but would be glad to hop on board given the necessary assurances.

He told BroadbandChoices:

“If BT follows the same model as we have in place now it will allow Be to offer more than 20meg broadband to far more than the existing 6% of the population. But if BT is allowed to take advantage of its monopolistic position and prevent ISPs like Be from delivering an exceptional service to customers, it will be a missed opportunity.”

Virgin Media

In terms of delivering super-fast broadband, Virgin Media has a two year head start on BT and will introduce a 50Mb service within the next few months.

Despite the ‘head to head’ nature of its relationship with BT, Virgin Media is, at the very least, backing BT’s intentions. A Virgin Media spokesperson had the following to say:

“We strongly support BT’s call for a stable regulatory environment that rewards both current and future investment. We will continue working closely with Ofcom and the government to achieve this.”

Sky

Sky went on the front foot by challenging Ofcom to maintain the competitive climate in the broadband sector. A Sky spokesman said:

“BT has much to offer but consumers will lose out if the right conditions are not in place to allow other providers to compete effectively.”

Ofcom replied by assuring Sky and other providers it will provide additional regulatory detail following BT’s announcement, based on providing the right incentives for operators to invest. Additionally, Ofcom pledged to publish a more detailed proposal for the regulatory framework in September.

 Speed Testers - a rollercoaster ride

Call me lonely, call me an ‘enthusiast’, call me what you like (within reason), but I’ve spent the lion’s share of this morning investigating and evaluating broadband speed testers.

Between 11 and 11:15 AM today, I tested my broadband download speed across 10 different online speed testers. They were all very simple to use, and each captured a reading of my download speed (and in some cases, upload speed) there and then in that moment.

While I ran the speed testers I had no other applications open.

The results were as follows:

As you can see, the range of readings is startling!

In order for this to be a worthy, empirical test, I’d have to isolate each speed tester tool, and take a reading every minute for fifteen minutes using just that tool (thus providing me with 15 separate readings across a quarter-hour period for each speed tester).

Have I got the time to do that? Not just yet, but you can bet your bottom dollar I’m working on it.

So, what are the conclusions I’ve drawn from the data above? Well:

• Taking all the speed test results at face value, and interpreting them in a sensible way as opposed to taking a strict mathematical approach, I seem to be receiving download speeds of around 8.5 Mbps on a weekday morning. Frankly, I’m quite pleased with that.

• Unless drop outs in the service I’m receiving were uncharacteristically severe this morning, some speed test tools are either (a) wildly inaccurate, or (b) designed to make me get infuriated with my ISP and want to switch.

I additionally took the BT speed test, the results of which haven’t been included here. The noteworthy aspect of this test was it informed me (quite categorically, in bold red letters) the maximum download speed my line is capable of is 6.5 Mbps.

Oh really? Try telling that to the broadband expert at Broadband Expert.

Of course, if you want to take an accurate and infallible set of readings, you should use a downloadable speed test tool such as the Broadband Choices speed tester , and monitor your service for at least a month.

For now though, why not flit around online yourself, and see if the range of readings you receive is as varied as mine?