[Russ]

BT's conditions for ADSL used to be that if you were within 3.5km of a BT exchange then you could get 1Mb broadband. Following recent work on their exchanges, they can now offer 2mb to those within 3.5km and 1mb to those within 6km which now means more people will be able to take up their service.

However another aspect to this is that BT can now guarantee 500k BB to anyone who lives near a recently-upgraded exchange (this means they must have a DSLAM device fitted which extends the range of their BB). Not sure what percentage of the population this now covers but around 1500 exchanges have been upgraded this way.

The only thing is it's not ADSL - it's RAADSL which is Rate Adaptive ADSL. This means they will guarantee 500k down at the expense of the upload which will be anything from 64k to 256, depending on how much of the downstream you're using. It's not perfect but it means BB is available to more people.