BT to roll out free broadband speed boosts

News has just reached us that BT Broadband will be offering free upgrades to faster speeds when it’s 21st Century ADSL2+ network comes online this summer. 10 million UK homes are due to receive the free speed boost, which will provide ‘up to’ speeds of 20Mbps, more than double the top speed currently available on any of BT’s packages.

Further rollout of the service will continue into the new year. 10 million homes accounts for roughly 40 per cent of BT’s network, and it is expected that a further 55 per cent will be covered by March 2010.

According to the press release, prices for BT products will remain as they are for the time being, even as new speeds are being rolled out. Bill Murphy, MD for BT Business announced the news, whilst failing to resist a delivering sarky aside to Virgin Media:

“Unlike other providers, BT is upgrading businesses to 20Mb/s for free. High-speed broadband provides a faster and more reliable service that will transform the way UK firms work and compete, at the time they need it most. In line with the Government’s Digital Britain review, we will be making higher speeds more widely available.”

BT has also announced that it will be providing its BT Broadband Accelerator to UK homes free of charge. The Broadband Accelerator, also known as an I-Plate, is a small device that helps to block interference on a phone line, resulting in faster and more stable connections.

Tests have shown that installing an I-Plate can have a dramatic effect on connections suffering from electronic interference. BT has said it will arrange for an engineer to visit to install a Broadband Accelerator free of charge. This should help customers languishing on dial-up speeds achieve a speed closer to the minimum 2Mbps target speed set by the government.

Lord Carter’s Digital Britain report is due on the 16th of June.

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