BT to offer 24mb speed broadband by next year

Buried in a BT's press release sent today is news that BT will launch end users broadband at a speed of 24 mbps in 2008 as part of the 21cn project.

The trials began in the West Midlands with the participation of three communications providers on November 1, 2007.

The trials will extend further, leading to a roll out beginning in spring 2008.

A growing number of BT competitors like Telefonica's Be, Sky Broadband, UKOnline or VirginMedia have been proposing speeds well above the normal 8mbps.

Virgin in particular is expected to rollout a 50 mbps super broadband package very soon.

BT currently has more than 4m retail broadband subscribers with each paying on average £271 per annum for broadband and other services.

BT also manages an additional 7.7 million broadband end users (on DSL and LLU connections) for its competitors.

In a bid to catch up with its rivals, BT has turned itself from being a phone only company to a more potent one which provides broadband, television, telephony for consumers as well as managed services and equipment for corporate users.