[CAnet - news] Broadband will be free, says British Telecom

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[Thanks to Dave Macneil for this pointer -- BSA]

February 26, 2006

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/-broadband-will-be-free-two-years-
/2006/02/26/1407694.htm	

Broadband will be free in two years

(Daily Mail (London) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) 

Feb. 26--BT IS planning to offer free broadband to all its customers --
currently 20 million -- when the telecoms giant's 10 billion 21st Century
Network project is switched on.

This was originally scheduled for 2009, but will now probably be a year
earlier, according to a senior company source.

"The 21CN system will give customers broadband dialtone -- meaning broadband
will be available just by plugging a computer in as part of basic line
rental," a spokesman said.

Additional services, including the possibility of buying extra fast download
speeds for as little as a day at a time, will be possible. "With the new
network, there is no need to install boxes or send engineers," the spokesman
said.

The company is trying to decide whether it should also make its
video-on-demand service, set for launch this summer, available to non-BT
customers.

Crucial to the scheme is rapid progress in development of the new network.
BT has only awarded half the contracts for building the system but says the
signing of contracts is "imminent." The company will probably operate the
old network in parallel with the new system to ease the transition.

The first city to be fitted with the new system will be Cardiff, where
development should be complete before the end of the year.

Broadband dialtone will also help BT sell its mobile phone product Fusion,
which switches calls to BT Broadband when the customer is at home.

So far the company has sold only 13,000, but this summer sees the launch of
handsets from major manufacturers that can use wi-fi, the radio system
millions of Britons use to connect home PC networks.

Ryan Jarvis, head of mobile products at BT, said: "At the moment, I can
serve only customers with BT Broadband. Obviously, I want everyone to be a
broadband user."


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