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Broadband upload speeds set to improve
20 Apr 2010 | 08.21 Europe/London
Faster uploads speeds for home and business ADSL2+ subscribers should be coming later this year as the early feedback on new BT technology appears positive.
Staffordshire-based business ISP, Netcentral, is one of ten ISPs chosen by BT to test its new Annex M technology and believes the tweak to ADSL2+ will allow it to offer SMEs improved upload speeds, although maybe not as pronounced as the claims made for the technology may suggest.
Annex M has been designed to more than double the upload speeds of an ADSL2+ connection to up to 2.5Mbp/s but Dave Thorpe, Head of Operations at Netcentral points out that “you’d have to be right next to the exchange” to get that sort of leap.
“We’re noticing, as you’d probably expect, a drop off in any performance benefit as you get further away from the exchange,” he says.
“We’re not managing to double upload speeds but we are, in general, seeing something like a 20% improvement which, of course, means you get 20% slower downloads. We’re testing out many combinations of lines and routers and so on and it’s early days so far. We’re only getting on for a month in to the tests and we expect them to last three or four months in total.”
Better broadband for SMEs and home workers
Netcentral believes the technology will mostly be of benefit to SMEs or for companies of any size which have a sizeable proportion of employees working remotely.
“Most companies who are really serious about having good upload speeds as well as good download speeds go for a synchronous connect, but they can work out expensive for some smaller businesses,” he says.
“We think Annex M is going to be very useful for SMEs who work with rich media and want that extra bit of speed for uploading photographs, video or heavy work documents and contracts and who don’t mind sacrificing a corresponding amount of download speed.
“It’s going to be useful for businesses who rely on people working from home or working out in the field most of the time because it should mean they’re waiting less time to send large files to clients and to the central office.”
Thorpe reveals the business ISP is to continue testing different line and equipment variations to see how to get the best out of Annex M and is hopefully that as trials progress they will improve on the general 20% improvement they are currently recording.
Staffordshire-based business ISP, Netcentral, is one of ten ISPs chosen by BT to test its new Annex M technology and believes the tweak to ADSL2+ will allow it to offer SMEs improved upload speeds, although maybe not as pronounced as the claims made for the technology may suggest.
Annex M has been designed to more than double the upload speeds of an ADSL2+ connection to up to 2.5Mbp/s but Dave Thorpe, Head of Operations at Netcentral points out that “you’d have to be right next to the exchange” to get that sort of leap.
“We’re noticing, as you’d probably expect, a drop off in any performance benefit as you get further away from the exchange,” he says.
“We’re not managing to double upload speeds but we are, in general, seeing something like a 20% improvement which, of course, means you get 20% slower downloads. We’re testing out many combinations of lines and routers and so on and it’s early days so far. We’re only getting on for a month in to the tests and we expect them to last three or four months in total.”
Better broadband for SMEs and home workers
Netcentral believes the technology will mostly be of benefit to SMEs or for companies of any size which have a sizeable proportion of employees working remotely.
“Most companies who are really serious about having good upload speeds as well as good download speeds go for a synchronous connect, but they can work out expensive for some smaller businesses,” he says.
“We think Annex M is going to be very useful for SMEs who work with rich media and want that extra bit of speed for uploading photographs, video or heavy work documents and contracts and who don’t mind sacrificing a corresponding amount of download speed.
“It’s going to be useful for businesses who rely on people working from home or working out in the field most of the time because it should mean they’re waiting less time to send large files to clients and to the central office.”
Thorpe reveals the business ISP is to continue testing different line and equipment variations to see how to get the best out of Annex M and is hopefully that as trials progress they will improve on the general 20% improvement they are currently recording.
just another way of BT protecting its copper cabal a while longer methinks.
In my humble opinion it is a waste of money, they should just use fibre to the home and do the job right. Time for a Next Generation network for the next generation.
20 Apr 2010 | 09.37 Europe/London
What do you mean by "NEW Annex M technology"? Annex M has been available for years - we've had 2.4Mbps uploads via Annex M since mid 2007 in the office and also BeThere have been selling it too for about 3 years.
20 Apr 2010 | 10.35 Europe/London
as mentioned, Annex M is new to BT and it is BT that has asked 10 ISPs to trial it before a likely launch later in the year
20 Apr 2010 | 15.24 Europe/London
exactly what is the economic case for investment in FTTH then, oh learned fibre coven member ?
Annex M isn't costing anything (change a software parameter) but will give real services now rather than jam tomorrow if/but/when/maybe.
standing for Parliament on a universal fibre ticket ?
21 Apr 2010 | 09.31 Europe/London
Clearly Chris Doyle does not understand the business aspects of a national network.
22 Apr 2010 | 07.35 Europe/London