24 Mb Consumer Broadband Launched

twilight30 writes to tell us The Guardian is reporting that broadband provider "Be" is providing customers with the option of a 24 megabits per second download speed connection. These speeds are roughly three times the closest local competitor and also allow 1.3 megabits per second upstream, roughly five times quicker than any other service provider. The service is being offered at £24 (US $42.84) per month. Hopefully this will become a trend of radically increasing consumer internet speeds.

OMG PORN

[Pinefresh]

that will totally revolutionise my porn habit!

A Trend Indeed!

[nich0las]

I would hope that trend spills into the US! (a link would have helped me get my facts right) The last time I heard about connections in the UK it was about 60 pounds for a one meg line! I would certainly hope that US providers would be willing to give me 24 Mb for only $42! Instead of 3Mb for $40!

Not gonna happen here...

[mwilli]

It would be nice if this would be implemented here in the states, but the corporate entities that provide teh high speed internet access are quite greedy and, if/when they manage to provide that kind of bandwith, it would cost tremendously more than $43 a month.

24Mb/s Broadband

[mrclark13]

While this is without a doubt good news, I don't really see that happening in the U.S. very soon. After all, why should the big tel-co's spend more to upgrade their infrastructure when broadband growth is slowing? I personally hope that isn't the case, but I don't really see it being otherwise.

But are servers even fast enough for that?

[TheCarlMau]

Are servers even fast enough for that? For an impractical example, having 1mb/s line and trying to connect to a 28kb/s server makes having that 1mb/s pretty much useless. The same could be, I guess, true in this case.

(Although I'm not sure if I know what I'm talking about!)

Re:Australia first

[Luketh]

So have Adam Internet, which I'm running through (Rather be through internode though, I didn't get the call, however).

Weird that we should get the hook-up before any of the US providers.

Another odd thing is that Telstra isn't actually choosing to provide DSL2+ as part of its service. Their own BigPond service will stay at 10Mbps cable or whatever. They will allow other companies like Adam and Internode to install their own equipment in the telephone exchanges to allow for DSL2+ though.

I went from 64kbps (throttled from 1500k) to 24Mbps in a day... the human mind just can't comprehend on a scope like that. It's like Paris Hilton inventing a cure for cancer, and moreso, one that doesn't involve simply killing them with STDs instead.

Re:Wouldn't it be nice

[Ironsides]

It'll probably be a while before major US ISP's start going to higher speeds. Kind of sucks.

I'm not sure how much use a 24Mb connection is, considering that most websited don't have that much bandwidth to begin with. With the current backbones it's hard enough to use up 10Mb with only one site. Maybe when the backbones get up higher or server bandwith goes up, but not till then.

24 Mb, 24 MB, or whatever

[Anonymous Coward]

Letter to Cox Communications - you suck!

they forgot the "Up to" 24M(b)

[riprjak]

This is ADSL2+, so the speeds are UP TO 24Mb. I notice the koolaid^H^H^H^H^H^H^H article doesnt make mention of the "Up to" part, and am amused that a slashdot editor drank said koolaid in the first place.

So, unless you were wise enough to purchase the house next to the exchange (and the cables run directly), you arent going to get even near this speed. In fact, the falloff in speed is quite rapid.

I have ADSL2+ at home (here in Adelaide, Australia) and said home is 3.2 km from the exchange as the crow flies (plus or minus GPS error), probably longer by cable; and Im getting 7.5Mb down and 1.0 Mbit up (1.0 is the upstream limit locally). In my particular situation, the difference between ADSL 2 and ADSL 2+ would be pretty negligible.

On a separate note, I wonder if they realise that their "Be Boxes" (from TFA which wasnt even liked in the beginning) might be mistaken for old school computers :)

Just my $0.02 AUD.
err!
jak.

Not the only one in the uk

[grahamsz]

Blueyonder are rolling out a 10Mbit service, and they are one of the biggest uk broadband isps.

http://www.telewest.co.uk/websales/service.do?id=2 [telewest.co.uk]

It's weird how the US used to lead the world. I remember in 98 being stuck on a 56k dialup while the americans all had cable modems. Now i'm in the US on a 3mbit microwave link and wishing i could get uk style connectivity :(

Re:You can get this in Utah too...

[Fastball]

Yeah, and if you're downloading 3-4 DVD's worth of stuff a day

Acius, meet Sun. Sun, this is Acius--no, don't burn him. UV rays are like kryptonite to him. We must take this slowly...

Re:And probably not even that

[Yakman]

We still have quotas, don't forget :)

I can't think of a legitimate way to consistently download 30GB a month, unless you're downloading Linux ISOs every day - and even those are probably on the ISPs "free" mirrors .

Re:But are servers even fast enough for that?

[Jugalator]

It depends on their geographical location and load/capacity. I'm often noticing I'm capping at anywhere between 50 and 200 KB/s across the Atlantic on US servers, rarely going above that, but nationally I seem to much easier be able to get my full 1 MB/s up/down. This is on 10 Mbps optic fiber, I guess DSL have other limiting factors in addition, like copper line quality and distance from your station.

Re:And probably not even that

[yarbo]

pornography

Re:I love bandwidth

[Anonymous Coward]

My experience with English broadband is that it is run over deteriorating copper wires that were apparently laid when Alex Bell was experimenting with his telegraph machine, and which are frequently sliced into little segments by construction crews mangling the roads.

The fact that you refer to it as English broadband rather than British broadband leads me to believe that you are an American that hasn't actually spent a lot of time in this country at all. Natives don't talk that way, and Yanks who spend more than a month over here don't either. So really, when you speak "in your experience", it's not worth much, is it?

I, on the other hand, have lived here all my life, and my experience is that I haven't had an interruption to my cable broadband service, which I use all day practically every day, in well over a year, probably over two years.

Re:And probably not even that

[Proc6]

I hate comments like that.

That is the worst reasoning in the world to use against broadband. So what if there's no application for it now? The idea would be to get 24Mb to be commonplace then see how the internet changes. We all might be surprised to find out what's possible when that is the norm. Let's not sit at 512k and assume it's as good as it will ever need to be.

Re:I have had 26 Mbps for 3 years

[MattBurke]

It is by no means old news.

Here in the UK, bandwidth is not cheap. I pay around £45/month (That's 66 Euros) for an uncapped 2Mbit ADSL line with 256Kbit up, including line rental. That's a bloody good deal over here.

They are offering a product that's 50 times faster than the average broadband connection for a tiny price. That's BIG news here. I'm just disappointed it'll probably never reach where I live - capability for speeds over 2Mbit are limited to a very few heavily populated areas such as London, London and London.

Re:And probably not even that

[matt21811]

Actually, you could make one continuous month long VOIP telephone call and not use more than 4 gig.

A video call is a lot harder to judge.

Oh boy, even faster downloadz!

[n6kuy]

I'd rather have cheaper prices and faster uploads....

Great! More Speed!

[nurb432]

This will lead to more bandwidth wasting websites.. More bandwidth for spam and viruses.

Great.. Just f-ing great.