BT hints at broadband speed boost

Once again BT has seemingly hinted towards an increase in UK broadband speeds, which may include an upgrade to high-speed fibre-optic lines.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Ian Livingstone, the head of BT Retail, said that providing the best service for its customers was always a consideration for the firm.

"BT remains very interested in further expanding the speed of access for customers, whether that be through faster copper, fibre to the home, [or] fibre to the cabinet," he said.

'Fibre to the home' refers to bringing the fast fibre-optic lines all the way to the phone sockets in homes across the country, while 'fibre to the cabinet' means that the fast connections will only reach the exchange boxes in the street, with the last leg covered by copper cables as normal, which would reduce connection speeds.

VoIP services can hold a connection well with the current amount of broadband bandwidth available, but greater capacity would allow improvements to sound quality, as well as additional features such as video conferencing being even easier and quicker to set up.

Mr Livingstone's comments follow a warning from the minister for competitiveness, Stephen Timms, that Britain's businesses could fall behind other countries if faster broadband speeds were not rolled out countrywide.

Compared to areas in eastern Europe and Asia, Britain's broadband speeds are sluggish, with a new benchmark report from Consulting firm Ovum also finding that the broadband markets in these countries are seeing much faster growth than in the UK.