24-megabit broadband launched at £24 a month

[Lord Ser Brightblade]

24-megabit broadband launched at £24 a month

Hilary Osborne

Monday September 26, 2005

A new broadband service offering a connection up to 24 times faster than other providers at less than double the price began a national rollout today.

For £24 a month customers of broadband provider Be are being offered a download speed of up to 24 megabits a second, three times that available from closest rivals UK Online, Bulldog and Homechoice and 12 times that on offer from BT and Wannadoo.

The bandwidth offered by the new service will be enough to allow consumers to stream two high definition TV channels through their computer simultaneously, while they surf their internet or make voice calls.

The service will also allow customers to upload information onto the internet at a speed of up to 1.3 megabits a second - five times quicker than any other service on the market.

"This radically advanced capability will change the way people use their computers and opens up a world of opportunities as exciting as the advent of broadband itself," said Dana Pressman, managing director of Be.

The company has been trialling its service since the beginning of September and it is now available across much of London.

To subscribe customers must have a BT phone line and pay a connection fee of £24.

Paul Smyth, a spokesman for Be, said the national rollout would begin in major cities and would take up to a year to complete. Consumers can find out if the service is available on their line on the website www.bethere.co.uk. Mr Smyth said that while standard broadband connections allowed people to download music from services like iTunes at a rate of one track in four minutes, the Be connection would enable them to download seven albums in the same time.

He added that customers would be provided with a "Be Box", a wireless router including two phone ports, and that the company planned to later offer voice over internet protocol (VoIP) which would allow people to make calls using their computers.

"Be is relatively pioneering when you consider people are still announcing one meg unlimited broadband and we are making available up to 24meg connections at only just over twice the price," he said.

"What we're trying to be competitive on is not necessarily the price, though, but the technology."

Blair Wadman, broadband product manager at comparison website uSwitch, said the deal was competitive.

"It's £10 a month more expensive than the average broadband service but considering what you're getting it's a good price," he said.

"If you're just surfing the internet and sending emails though you will be fine with a £15 a month broadband connection."

[Balandar]

Think they can run a line to my place in the states?

[Hothgorn TheBlack]

but.....where's the rum gone?