[Chrysalis]

Virgin is very different.

Every customer on virgins digital network can get a synch equal to the speed they have paid for so every 20meg customer gst a 20meg synch on the modem.

With BT the 'MAJORITY' of customers do not get the advertised synch speeds only around a quarter can get 8meg on adsl1 and it will be single figures who are able to get close to 24meg infact under 5%. To me thats a large difference.

Now I know virgin have traffic management (BT do also tho) but at least with virgin customers can expect to hit their max speed at some point during the day even if its at 4am whilst if you on adsl and synch below the max speed you will never ever download at max speed because your line is incapable.

As to this trial BT are not going to be doing a national rollout, the shareholders have made this clear and ofcom are sending out noises they wont push for a rollout so the only way BT are doing fiber is if someone subsidises it aka the government.

BTs 21CN will upgrade the dslams to support adsl2+ 24mbit speeds, this will benefit the already lucky few with short lines meaning a higher headline speed for a minority of customers exactly as I said. BT are doing nothing in 21CN to improve things for long lines, they not even replacing ADSL1 with ADSL2, ADSL2 was designed with long lines in mind. (ADSL2 and ADSL2+ are different).

In addition it looks like they removing their fixed 512kbit, 1mbit, 2mbit products from wholesale putting everyone into a one speed fits all product priced the same regardless of synch speed you get, ignoring the fact some lines are unstable on rate adaptive adsl and need fixed speeds to be stable. Cable has its problems but believe me adsl is far worse in equality.

The grass may seem greener but it isnt always the case.

I am speaking as someone who has used cable and adsl in recent years, I was in one of ntls worst areas analogue only services and congested ubr's dispite this I have found adsl to be a significantly worse experience in both performance and stability.