Be already offers broadband up to 24Mb but has been testing new technology in London that can ‘bond’ two high-speed connections together – doubling customers’ current speed.
The initial trial ran across the central London Paddington exchange. In member feedback, Be’s customers have reported real-world download speeds of between 30Mb and 45Mb. This is the equivalent of 3MB to 4.5MB each second – the size of an average MP3 file. Wider trials of the service are planned through 2009.
"We want to push the limits of high-speed broadband. We already offer the fastest possible broadband on an ADSL line, but we want to take it a step further. If you want broadband around the 50Mb mark but don’t want to go the cable route, Be wants to offer you a real alternative.”
Earlier this week Virgin announced that it will be rolling out faster broadband services through to summer 2009. However, these services will only be available in cable areas. Non-cable customers would be required to have their current phone line converted to use the service. Be Broadband’s trials will allow customers to get equivalent speeds through standard BT phone lines
While the trial’s objective was to understand the technical capabilities of the bonded service, Be also wanted to gauge the effect that these speeds had from a user experience as well. The full results of the trail, both technical and from a user perspective, will be available at the start of 2009.
Felix Geyr, Managing Director of Be Broadband
Earlier this week Virgin announced that it will be rolling out faster broadband services through to summer 2009. However, these services will only be available in cable areas. Non-cable customers would be required to have their current phone line converted to use the service. Be Broadband’s trials will allow customers to get equivalent speeds through standard BT phone lines
While the trial’s objective was to understand the technical capabilities of the bonded service, Be also wanted to gauge the effect that these speeds had from a user experience as well. The full results of the trail, both technical and from a user perspective, will be available at the start of 2009.
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11 comments:
Screw the speed! Leave "Great Firewall of Britain" that's what your users want.
What would be nice is if they joined up with BT (and other ISPs) to actually upgrade some of the cabling for those on lower speeds. Its all well and good making the fast even faster, but what about making the slow at least acceptable first? I'm with BE and am currently lucky to get 1mb - in a city thats relatively new in the grand scheme of things...
Hi Matt,
The actual speed you'll get depends on an number of factors, not just the quality of cabling. You can see what factors affect speed performance here:
https://www.bethere.co.uk/generalFAQ.do#faq10
Thanks,
The Be Team
Only one question, when is it rolled out ?
Thanks for the reply.
I have been through most of those with your helpdesk team and they informed me it was the cabling.
Just a quarter of a mile away (on the newer half of the estate) they can get way better speeds because of better cabling. Disappointing really.
@Mahadewa - Not sure yet, but will let everyone know where/when it will be available.
@Matt - Sorry to hear that. Have passed on your feedback to the team re joining with ISPs to upgrade cabling system.
Thanks to BT's lovely cabling I only get about 6-7Mbit, despite being less then 1000 meters from my exchange, so, hopefully, if Be roll this out maybe I can double my bandwidth to 12Mbit. I wonder if it's possible with three lines...
A good time to announce this.
Many will see the Virgin Media news, and just sigh at the fact that they don't live in a cable area. At least customers have an option (until all streets are upgraded with fibre-optic cable).
Is this to be offer by all Be exchanges?
Give Xrio UBM a try, the bonding is really rather good!
"The full results of the trail, both technical and from a user perspective, will be available at the start of 2009."
Presuming you meant trial rather than trail :-)
Here we are at the start of 2009. Please can we have the trial results then? And of course, a rollout schedule would be nice too....
I would have to agree with most people. There is a major down side to your service too which users do not know and this is that they would have to pay for two line rentals, the cost of the bonding hardware which by the way can be achieved with Microsoft 2000+ servers and multiple network cards.
So by the end of it all, it would just be cheaper to go with Virgin. Plus I am a Be member. So very disappointed because my line speed is at the moment no more than 6 mbps. on Be Pro 24mb. If it doesn't connect at 24 mbps, do not state it. Talk about false advertising.
Also my up speed is also supposed to be 2.5 mbps. I get a max of 1.2 mbps.
I am no more than 1860 meters from the exchange. Thats 1.15 - 1.16 miles in total. Am I missing something here?
I think you guys will be paying for some line upgrades and engineers sending out I think.
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