News First business BT 21CN FTTC
Friday, 24th July 2009, immediate release
AAISP are pleased to be providing the first of BT's new fibre to the cabinet super high speed broadband connections to a business customer in the UK at Budgens, East Finchley, this week.
Upgrading from 4Mb/s ADSL to 35Mb/s super high speed broadband took a little over an hour, and marks the start of a new level of internet access for business and home customers alike.
Being able to offer FTTC allows us to compete more directly with competitors providing so-called "fibre broadband". However, we see the increased uplink that FTTC can provide to be key to business customers - surpassing SDSL speeds and allowing previously difficult services such as remote monitoring of surveillance cameras, and better VPNs in to head office systems.
Budgen's East Finchley store manager Rasiah Jannakan says… 'To offer our customers what they want, when they want it, means that behind the scenes the East Finchley Budgens store needs a really efficient stock ordering system. We are delighted to try out the new broadband fibre connection provided by Andrews & Arnold and expect the faster upload speeds to our head office to make a real difference - and our customers' credit card payments should be faster too. Other Budgen stores around the UK are watching with interest'.
Adrian Kennard, Andrews & Arnold director, said… 'We aim to be at the leading edge of technology at all times and we are delighted to pilot fibre broadband. Taking part in service trials wherever possible, enables our customers to get the best service possible, stay ahead of their competition and delight their customers. We are pleased that our business customers were the first to be connected to BT's high-speed fibre broadband service in East Finchley'.
Editorial notes
FTTC works just like ADSL (broadband) except that the length of the line is shorter. Instead of having to go all the way back to the exchange the line only has to go to the nearest street cabinet (green box). This shorter distance means the line can run at much higher rates using VDSL technology. The link form the cabinet to the exchange is then fibre which can handle all of the connections to the cabinet itself. BT are installing new street cabinets next to existing cabinets to hold the extra equipment.
Whilst this is the basically same principle as services sold as fibre optic broadband, A&A do not sell it as such because it is still a copper pair from the cabinet and for A&A to claim it was fibre optic broadband would be lying (regardless of what the ASA think).
Andrews & Arnold Ltd have been in business over 12 years providing communications solutions to businesses and more technical users. The main focus of the company is technical expertise and quality services providing leading edge technical solutions. Unlike most ISPs A&A have their own R&D department which makes up nearly a quarter of the staff. The company has always worked closely with BT and is often asked to help with tests and pilots both formally and informally by BT and we always provide detailed feedback to help improve services. A&A were among the first ISPs to launch broadband, to provide ADSL2+ faster broadband and not among the first to provide FTTC. A&A do also provide actual fibre service, available to around 90% of UK business at speeds of up to a gigabit, but that is a somewhat more expensive service aimed at larger businesses. The FTTC service is the same price to A&A customers as normal ADSL!
