BT to 'prove' 1Gb/s internet.

[Glenn]

BT hopes to show off the potential of its fibre-to-the-premises technology in the new year, with a trial in Suffolk that will push downstream speeds up to 1Gbit/s.

The purely technical exercise in Kesgrave, involving engineers from BT's nearby Martlesham Heath labs, will aim for a downstream speed ten times the 100Mbit/s offered to customers at launch. The upstream needle will meanwhile be pushed to 400Mbit/s.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/12/03/bt_gigabit/

[Rik]

I notice that they don't want to let us mere mortals near it in case we put a strain on it.

[Bill]

I can't help wondering why they feel a need to demonstrate the feasibility of getting 1Gbps from one place to another along a fibre... what do their main backbones use?

The exercise is pure fluff, imho.

[Rik]

You have a good point, Bill. Nice PR job by BT though.

[DorsetBoy]

A bit lame when they had 40GB working in Sweden 

[Bill]

I've never denied that if BT's technical side was as good as their PR department, most ISPs could shut down their support numbers 

[pctech]

Most ISPs' backbones operate at 1 Gbps as well as the hostlinks being at this speed so BT is proving absolutely nothing.

What will they prove next, that electricity travels best over gold?

[Rik]

No, Mitch. That electricity travelling over their cables is, to them, gold.

[Rik]

They had stones, though.

[MrEllis]

Does the home user really need speeds that fast?

[pctech]

Not really unless you have a few hundred servers in your garage.

[Rik]

We need an electrical engineer.

[klipp]

Rather than focussing 1Gb/s in certain areas, why not give EVERYONE a respectable connection.  In the year 2010 my connection is the same 1Mb/s as it was ten years ago.  Rural Britain has been well and truly forgotten about.

[Rik]

The speed follows the profits.