Internet up to twice as fast for most
Thursday 18th March 2010, 2:29PM GMT.
BROADBAND speeds are set to double for most users from May at no extra cost.
But some will be left with existing speeds because network improvements have not yet been made close enough to them.
Cable & Wireless announced this morning that 2 megabits per second (Mb) residential broadband lines will be enhanced to up to 4Mb. All 4Mb broadband lines will be upgraded to up to 8Mb.
The 8Mb broadband service will not be upgraded until the next stage of the programme, but the current wholesale price will be reduced by 37%.
Cable & Wireless Guernsey’s marketing director Paul Taylor (pictured) said:
‘Broadband speeds will double on 1 May, but this is just a precursor to further speed increases that we expect to launch later this year.’
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Finally, thank you Sure!
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While the speed increase is welcome (although i currently get less that half of the “up to 2mb” at present so i doubt i will get any where near 4mb) the bandwidth available is only part of the problem.
With applications like gaming or voip the latency (how long the data takes to get where it’s going as opposed to how much you can send) has been the real problem i face over here.
Hopefully this will also improve
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About time \o/
Hoping this will improve things for us online gamers.
Cheers Sure :D
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The download speed is increasing. But does anybody know about upload speed? At 288kpbs, it’s currently a bit shabby (although adequate for “web browsing only” users).
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how do i know how much bandwidth i currentently now.
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We really need some high speed wireless, the DSL infrastructure is just going to become outdated when they finally figure that you won’t able able to supply more than 15mbps. When in a few years the UK will have 100bmps over their cable networks.
The way Guernsey works, cable laying is inefficient, and disruptive.
However C&W will make us all think we are getting better and better internet by boosting it by 2mbps till in four years time when we all have 15mbps and can’t go anywhere.
Lay the costs of the tech from laying the cable to installing wireless transmitters, the cost of installing 30 or so wireless stations, on existing towers and sites, is obviously cheaper than laying 100′s of miles of cable, inevitably missing the tricky neighborhoods out.
Go 4G, go for software defined radio, for cheaper upgrades, instant 100mbps connections which will be cheaper for everyone.
You could even transmit TV on a MUX with a special decoder box.
Use the same network for mobile phone internet, and calls, make use of UMA!!! Most new smart-phones coming out, including all the blackberry’s use it. Offload from your outdated GSM networks!
Come on C&W
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well, there’s a surprise!
We see in the media that the OUR are FINALLY investigating BB and fixed line pricing, and low and behold, Sure are suddenly and inexplicably able to provide faster speeds for no extra charge!!
Watch this space for the announcement about all the extra benefits and discounts available to fixed line customers, coming our way soon…
it’s good to be Sure, especially when you have a total monopoly over certain parts of the telecoms market and can rip customers off for years simply because they have no other choices.
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At last we will see speeds increase. We could go down one route like Highworth in Wiltshire in having free wi-fi internet access for all residents, perish the thought.
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what about the people that use Wave or Airtel?
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I’m definitionally going to run speed tests from now until the end of May, in order to see if there is any significant increase.
Also, I assume C&W will reduce the monthly bill of those who don’t receive this increase??
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*definitely
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Joshua/grant – I agree totally
As i’ve written several times in other locations guernsey is in an almost unique position with a very controllable population. The natural limits provided mean it could be an ideal test bed for new technologies and concepts.
Fonera’s FON would be a great idea over here. For those that don;t know what it is, its a adls router which when connected creates two wireless networks. One private for the owner of the adsl connection and one semi-public for other subscribers.
Handinf out this type of router to customers in the island would rapidly give a wireless broadband coverage to a large part of the island without inpacting on sures buisness plan.
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The network you suggest j won’t introduce any new WAN infrastructure, if anything it would slow down your speeds and discourage adoption.
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Joshua
“Use the same network for mobile phone internet, and calls, make use of UMA!!! Most new smart-phones coming out, including all the blackberry’s use it. Offload from your outdated GSM networks!”
Two of the three local mobile providers i spoke to did not know what UMA was let alone how it worked.
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Douche
Here try this
http://www.speedtest.net/
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Steve, what’s most shocking about that is how unsurprised I am. Their just isn’t any incentive for them to get knowledgeable in their options. If necessity is the mother of invention, they are all complacent and content.
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Speedtest’s or most of them measure from the exchange to “the internet” NOT from your home so the crappy wire that comes out you house to the exchange that’s 20 years old is going have a serious effect on your speed that is not going to show up in speedtest’s. My speed test is 2MBPS but I know I get 234KBPS for a fact. If more people got wise to this blatant rip-off it would change. Sadly, most are too naive and technologically illiterate to really realise what’s happening. My buddy in the UK pays £7 per month for 5MBPS just to illustrate how bad C&W are.
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“Super-fast broadband will be available to every home in the UK by 2020, the prime minister is to promise later.”
In a speech, Gordon Brown is expected to call super-fast broadband “the electricity of the digital age” which “must be for all – not just for some”. BBC
I hope Sure has these goals in mind for broadband.
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Joshua
While fon would not speed up access at all and would place an extra burdon on each connection, this burdon would be limited and prioritiesed.
I know that all these old guernsey houses would limit the area that the open wireless network would cover but it would still provide a huge amount of free (for subscribers) wireless access. The majority of town would be an covered along with most of the other densly populated areas.
Fon however is just one possability. Guernsey seems like a perfect test bed for LTE or WIMAX networks which could be used to replace our current cabled infrastucture completly.
My point is while using guernsey as a huge source of revenue to cover more competitive area’s of their buisness, why not also use it as a test bed.
We have a confined community, a near monopoly and a fairly wealthy and tech savvy population. surely we’re the perfect place to try new things.
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Rob
Try 2 Mega”BITS” per second versus 234 Kilo”BYTES” per second.
1 Byte = 8 bits.
Mega = 1,000,000
Kilo = 1,000
It would be good to learn basic maths.
Also,
The speedtest DOES go all the way to your house. It bounces the signal from your computer. Unless I’m mistaken that isn’t at the exchange!!!!!
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Don’t think the UK has a good internet service, they are miles behind the rest of europe, you get promised good speeds but very rarely get them, has well has download speeds people forget the upload is just has important.
what ever the prime minster said just take with a pinch of salt. the only people likly to get 20 megs is in London, not rest of uk
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An increase in the mail size would be handy. I appear to be limited to 2mb each time by Wave.
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Well my (and i use it in the BROADEST sense of the term) Broadband rarely gets above 54KBPS. Beat that !!! Cable & Wireless are utterly useless when it comes to broadband promises. Several years on and its still barely better than dial up speeds, disgraceful. Best thing is when i complained about it the person on the other end said ‘oh well’ and i heard them laughing before ending the call.
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Jeremy
You’re doing well.
I cannot even get my Outlook to connect with Wave’s outgoing mail server….
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Rob, you really should learn about the subject before throwing around statements like “Sadly, most are too naive and technologically illiterate to really realise what’s happening.”
As Martyn points out a 2 megabit ADSL line will not download at 2 megabytes per second.
The maximum throughput on a 2 megabit line is about 240KB/sec no matter where in the world the 2 megabit line is (there are protocol overheads etc on top of the raw line speed, but that is far too technical to get into here).
Of course that is also best case and in many situations the limitation is the webserver itself.
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