Viatel jumps on ADSL2+ bandwagon

Viatel is offering line speeds of up to 24Mbit/s

European business ISP Viatel has announced the availability of its ADSL2+ network, which it claims will give many of its customers a significant speed boost at no additional cost.

The network upgrade will see line speeds boosted to up to 24Mbit/s and, unlike some other providers that offer the upgrade to new or re-subscribing customers, Viatel is moving customers onto the new service as it becomes available in their areas.

The company expects around 40 per cent of its shared broadband customers to be on the faster service by the end of the year. The vast majority are expected to be moved over by March 2010, with all customers transitioned by 2012 as the BT exchange upgrade rollout allows.

Viatel is also offering dedicated, symmetric bandwidth using Ethernet-in-the-first-mile for businesses that need higher throughput and guaranteed bandwidth. The service uses on-site equipment to bond multiple copper pairs into a single Ethernet port. Bandwidth options can be purchased between 1Mbit/s and 10Mbit/s in 1Mbit/s increments.

"People have been talking about next-generation services for some time, but it is only now that it is becoming a reality," said Michael Davies, head of product management at Viatel.

"We are delighted to be able to offer improved services to our customers, preparing them for the rollout of next-generation technologies. Crucially, businesses can now get significantly faster access with no increase in price."

The provider is also offering new services such as fibre-to-the-cabinet and fibre-to-the-premises as they become available.

Viatel has created a introductory guide dubbed Are you ready for it? explaining the various terms and services to businesses unfamiliar with ADSL2+ and other next-generation broadband technologies.