Faster products

[#1]

I'm just after some sort of update as to where we stand now with Plus.net in regards to faster services being offered. More and more I'm finding there are things I can't do online because my connection simply isn't fast enough.
The other day we had 12Gbytes of pictures to send to various people for my family's business to people in Norway, UK and Ireland. In the end it was decided to burn the images to DVD's and mail them out as it was actually going to be quicker.
Now I know 12Gbytes sounds a lot. But really when I thought about it, it really isn't. These are a few hundred still images, ok they were high-resolution, but still its not like I was asking to send a feature film or anything and this has me wondering.
Towards the end of this year my TV region is changing over to digital and because of the poor quality offered by digital I'm currently building a network in my home so High Definition can be streamed to each room via a media server linked into the Internet and Digital Satellite. What I'm really concerned by is the amount of bandwidth I'm likely to need for the Internet part of the setup. Right now I get 4Mbit/sec down and even downloading Standard Definition video from the likes of  the BBC's iPlayer I'm going to max my connection. Nevermind trying to downloading High Definition content.
Right now its looking like come the switch over I'm going to max-ing my connection 24 hours a day for TV alone never mind all my online gaming 
So my question is when will we start seeing faster services from Plus.net? I'm not talking about 8 16 24Mbit/sec . What I really want is a date were we can start looking forward to 100Mbit+ services like other countries are rolling out so we can start looking forward to the introduction of Internet TV.
Now I know this country is somewhat behind others in terms of Internet infrastructure. But really how hard are Plus.net trying to source products to offer the speeds customers like myself are going to be demanding in the next 6-12 months?
Thanks

[#2]

Hi,
I think which ever way you look at it uploading 12GB is a hell of a lot of data. That's the same as about 15 XviD movies. I don't think is the kind of "norm" that most people will be wanting to do even if they could. At current speeds 12GB is about 3-4 days of solid uploading.
The next step on the speed ladder is ADSL2+ which will offer up to 24Mbps, that's due to start being rolled out by BT towards the end of this year or the beginning of next. That will mainly benefit those that currently receive more than 4Mbps. Between about 1Mbps and 4Mbps on ADSL now will mean that ADSL2+ speeds will be about the same.
Even then the upload speeds would be a maximum of 1Mbps on ADSL2+ as that's the design limit of the technology.
The next technology from there is VDSL2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VDSL2
This will involve rolling out fibre to the local street cabinets and moving the DSLAM there from the exchange. BT have trialled this and suggested it will likely be on their roadmap but I wouldn't expect much in the way of availability before 2010.

[#3]

I think that your expectations are a little out of scale.
12GB is three DVD's worth, that would take some time to transfer across a 100Mb connection.
The maximum upload speed assuming a residential connections 448 kbps
So I would guess at over 12 hours to upload !!!
And remember that PlusNet charge £1.00 per GB (Extra usage on BBYW)
So burning to DVD and posting (Sneaker Net) is possibly the best way to move that much data.
Chilly

[#4]

An idea would be to shrink down (resize) the photos. which can be done using a powertoy available free from microsoft, then do as ive down create a simple html page on your webspace and upload the photos there.
i used 1024* 768 resolution and was uploaded pretty quick.
have a look and pinch the code if you like.
www.sloany.me.uk
but, as too 100mb connections it has been in the media quite alot about how BT are unable to keep up with the continent on these speeds due to BT's network will require a major overhaul and investment to acheive this. It is even doubtful BT's infrastructure can realistically support mass ADSL2.

[#5]

Quote from: Peter

The simple fact is that neither BT nor Virgin Media are prepared to lay the fibre optics needed to provide 100Mbps services domestically.

I don't think they could afford to either, at least not nationwide. In small areas maybe. Many of the nations that have done mass fibre rollouts have done so either because the population is very densely concentrated so one fibre will serve several buildings and each building houses hundreds of people. Or the fibre is layed relatively cheaply overhead rather than underground and the last kilometre or so is copper. Which can end up like this picture I posted the other day