BT to provide 20 Mbps broadband service to 40% of UK by end of year

British Telecom (BT) has announced that around 40 per cent of British businesses will be able to access 20 Mbps ADSL2+ broadband by the close of the year.

This is part of BT's 21st Century Network project, with the first components to come commercially online in the summer.

The company's £1.5 billion fibre-to-the-cabinet network roll-out will continue to bring on new commercial services into 2010, in an effort to improve access and broadband speeds being experienced in the UK.

Among the services planned is Ethernet in the First Mile, a small and medium-sized business package which is symmetrical to ensure upload speeds are the same as downlinks.

BT Business's Greg Duffy told PC Pro: "Once people start working from home, you have more outward traffic going over your network and that's where the symmetrical connection comes into its own.

"It doesn't take too many people to fill up an ordinary broadband connection."

Meanwhile, rival firm Virgin Media has launched a pilot scheme to deliver 200 Mbps broadband to a group of 100 consumers in Kent.