If you're a BT (NYSE: BT) customer that wants higher ADSL2+ upload speeds, you'll now be able to get those speeds, but they'll come at the cost of slower downloads.
Designed with the user who likes to upload photos, online gamers and remote employees that need to send and receive large files, the new Annex M service will be available to BT's own retail customers and ISPs that leverage BT's last mile network.
Users that sign up for the Annex M service will be able to get a higher upload speeds ranging from 200 Kbps to 1 Mbps, but download speeds will drop 10 to 15 percent. Of course, there is a catch. If you sign up for the service BT is only promising that you can get 85 percent of maximum guaranteed speeds between 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Given that this is a DSL-based service, it also is subject to the distance limitations of a copper line. Entanet, a competitive provider trialing the Annex M service, reported that customers that resided close to BT's COs got 2.5 Mbps upload speeds, while that speed declined to 1 Mbps for other customers located further away from the CO.
While BT is charging ISPs $11 per customer for Annex M, BT has not revealed what end-users will have to pay when they debut the service this month.
For more:
- Network World has this story
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