British Telecom recently announced an upgrade for most of its residential and business broadband subscribers. The company is upgrading 5,300 of its local exchanges to support speeds theoretically reaching upwards of 8 Megabits per second, depending on the distance from the exchanges. This means about 78% of subscribers will be able to reach 4 Megabits per second, while 42% is likely to reach 8 Megabits per second up. Subscribers within close proximity to the exchanges, meanwhile will get a whopping 8 Megabits per second connection speed.

This is welcome news to existing and startup companies alike, especially those that need reliable and fast Internet connectivity for business transactions. We earlier reported that majority of Internet access in the UK—as much as 64% as of 2005—is through broadband lines. While the broadband penetration and speed aren’t at par with, say, South Korea or even the USA, this is, indeed, a good development.

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