BT confirms ADSL pricing and rollout

BT today opened registration for its high-speed internet access services for consumers, small businesses and teleworkers.

BTopenworld services will be available from July. They will use asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) technology, which uses existing copper phone lines, to provide an 'always-on' internet connection at up to speeds of 2Mbps.

However, the services will not run at those speeds until December. When launched, the maximum download speed for both consumers and businesses will be 512Kbps.

The consumer service will be priced at £39.99 a month with an installation fee of £150. Users can also make phone calls on the line, so that someone calling will not hear an engaged signal. Consumers that sign up before 30 June won't have to pay the installation fee.

Single business users can sign up for a service with similar pricing to the consumer version. Multi-user businesses will pay £99.99 a month with a £260 installation fee for connecting four PCs with up to 10 email addresses. More PCs can be connected using their own cabling. Download speeds will be increased from 512Kbps to 2Mbps by December.

BT said that more than 35,000 people have registered interest in the service and that it will begin taking pre-orders from today through its website www.btopenworld.com.

By early 2001, BTopenworld plans to offer customers the Personal Openworld Portal, a personal gateway to content and applications accessible from a range of devices including Wap mobile phones, multi-phones, PCs or the TV.

The company has signed up 50 content providers and has teamed up with 16 technology companies including Alcatel, Hewlett Packard and Lucent Technologies.

Telewest has also launched a high-speed internet access service, called Blueyonder, priced at £50 a month. This includes the rental of the cable modem with a one-off connection fee of £50. However, the service will be rolled out on a regional basis and is currently only available in Basildon, Chatham, Chelmsford, Gillingham, Grays, Gravesend, Maidstone, Rochester, Southend.

BTopenworld will be available from July in:

Aberdeen, Ashford, Basingstoke, Belfast, Birmingham, Brighton, Cambridge, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Coventry, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hastings, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Newcastle, Nottingham, Oxford, Portsmouth, Swindon, Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells, Winchester and York.