I was asked at lunch today how it was that we cannot all access internet broadband and those that can are not able to access the high speeds that some of the internet service providers - ISPs - advertise.

British Telecom owns the phone lines into every building in the country. Computer internet data is sent to each BT phone exchange at superfast speed. BT however restricts the speed out from the exchange to 2_Megabits per second. This allow fast data transfer but not fast enough for quality moving pictures. 

BT can be regarded a  wholesaler of telephone lines for internet traffic. They wholesale this service to all the other Internet Service Providers such as Wanadoo, Pipex, Bulldog etc. The ISPs then retail it to the public dressed up in various packages with different features for various prices. 

The bottom line however  is that, until now, the speed could not exceed the limit set by BT of 2 Megabits per second. 
 
Enter “Local Loop Unbundling”

 Individual companies can now have access to your phone lines and connect them to their electronic interfaces which they install in the local exchange. These give them access to the superfast BT speeds which are fed to the exchange. They can then, for a price, give you access to greater speed. 
 
How fast ? 

Wanadoo say that they can provide you with 8 Mbits / sec and BT probably will do the same by the spring of 2006. The slightly different technology ADSL2 will deliver 20Mbits / sec  and  the latest new standard ADSL2+  which bonds two wires together has the potential to give speeds up to 26Mbits/sec. It has the disadvantage that reliability and performance falls off steeply with distance from the telephone exchange however.

Why have the faster speed ?

Obviously the still pictures of your grandchildren can be downloaded in a flash. The real time moving pictures will not be blurred and jerky but will be as good as that on your television screen; useful with Skype when you have an audio visual chat with your family across the sea. Most useful however in that it will be able to deliver the new high definition television – HDTV- into the house either to your computer or to the TV screen.. 

BSkyB have got into bed with Easynet who have been busy putting their own equipment into telephone exchanges across the country to enable LLU “Local Loop Unbundling”. In the spring they intend to offer HDTV  from their satellite and perhaps down the phone line. 

In summary those of us around Thetford are not likely to have access to speeds faster than 2Mbits/sec at the moment. Increased speed will probably be available sometime next year. When it is it has the potential to greatly improve the speed of what we down load from the internet  but, more practically, the quality of  the moving pictures that we see on the internet and on the television will be dramatically improved.