8Mbps broadband – and more!

Earlier this summer my home broadband connection (from BT) was upgraded to a theoretical 2Mbps, offering me a download speed four times faster than previously (subject, of course, to contention ratio constraints, etc in south-east London). Today, I read that BT is planning to roll-out an 8Mbps service, starting next month – stimulated by competitors such as NTL, Wanadoo, Bulldog, Be and Easynet, some of whom are offering speeds of up to 24Mbps!

These days, more people in the UK go online via broadband than by dial-up – the latter was overtaken in May 2005 and now makes up 50.7% of net connections. According to the BBC, Jupiter Research predicts that by 2010, 80% of online households in Europe will have a broadband connection – a figure that is likely to be even higher in the UK.

There is certainly less and less room for construction project team members to complain about the cost or availability of fast internet connections, and to use this as an excuse not to use construction collaboration technologies. However, some organisations move slowly, and we do still occasionally learn of companies where staff sometimes prefer to work at home because their internet link there is faster than the one they use on-site or in the office.

Permanent link to this article: http://extranetevolution.com/2005/10/8mbps_broadband/

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  1. […] also underlines the contention ratio issue (I touched on this briefly yesterday) quite succinctly: "It is not unusual for between five and 15 (or more) UK customers to share […]

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