[slowcoach]

Originally Posted by DeadKenny

It's surprising how quick it could happen. A year ago 1Mbps ADSL was just a dream and BT were reluctant to let people sign up even for 512kbps if they weren't close enough. Turned out the restriction was not technical however, just BT were sticking to theoretical tolerances but with a bit of tweaking and a more relaxed policy they found they could reach much futher and increase speeds.

Cheap 2Mbps ADSL has come about much quicker than I expected.

Still, as I say, I'm interested to see what NTL do with ADSL.

In actual fact the restriction WAS technical, just because BT have decided to relax noise limits doesn't change the physics.
Many people, like me, who had perfect 512KB ADSL are unable to have 1MB ADSL because the old problems are still there.
Continuously loosing connection will be a problem for many people who failed the original standard even if they pass the new standard.

"Extended Reach" is just marketing hype, the same infrastructure is still in place, and until BT is forced by IP's using their infrastructure to spend some serious money the dream of higher speeds will remain just that, a dream, for many people.


BT are pushing 1MB as if virtually everyone can have it for the asking, not so.

Many people will apply for 1MB and reluctantly accept 512KB when the line test fails, or worse, when the 1MB service is diabolical. This is good marketing by BT as many would have not applied for 512KB originally as it is such poor value compared to their 1MB service.

In the London Car Trade they have a practice named "Birdcalling", a punter phones about an advertised car, it's always a car everyone is looking for, the dealer prices it at a real bargain price. The punter is told that they will hold the car until he gets to the showroom. Upon his arrival, after a 200 mile journey, the punter is told that another salesman has sold the car by mistake and that it has already left the premises, "I'm very sorry about that Sir, to make amends I will do you a really special deal on one of these cars over here". The punter with the money burning a hole in his pocket reluctantly drives off in a car he could have bought at his local dealer.