21CN Progress Report

[#1]

It's been a few weeks since we last spoke to you about how our ADSL2+ trials via 21CN have been going. With the following article being published on Think Broadband we thought now would be an appropriate time to post a quick update. First of all we need to just define the different products that are available from BT Wholesale. There's WBC (Wholesale Broadband Connect) and WBMC (Wholesale Broadband Managed Connect) which are the ADSL2+ connectivity products and the new backhaul links to transfer the customer data from exchange to the ISP. The second product is IPStream Connect, this allows an ISP to use it's 21CN backhaul to connect exchanges with only 20CN customers (i.e. the existing IPStream Max/fixed rate products). At the moment IPStream Connect isn't available on WBMC (the WBC version was made available earlier this year) and isn't expected to be available until later next year. This doesn't though affect the availability and rollout of ADSL2+ as these are completely seperate. As far as our trial is concerned our backhaul link has been successfully installed and our first staff orders are currently in progress and expect to have the first one live in the next week or so. We'll post a further update in the next couple of weeks to let you know how these trial orders are going. Dave Tomlinson Plusnet Product Team

[#2]

Is there anywhere you can find out when your exchange supposed to be getting ADSL2+ ? My exchange is due for 21CN conversion in Q1 2010 but I dont think that auotmatically means I can get ADSL2+ does it though? I'm not holding my breath as ADSL in the UK always takes many years to reach semi-rural areas like my area, where we dont even have access to LLU yet!!

[#3]

You can check the dates that we know here: http://usertools.plus.net/exchanges It won't have the dates for all the exchanges but has the ones that are currently available and the ones that will be enabled over the next few months for ADSL2+.

[#4]

[...] We’ve been preparing for 21CN for quite a while now and keeping a very close eye on how the early rollout has been progressing. 21CN uses a new network to deliver customers’ traffic from their local exchange to the ISP, so rather than using our “classic” 622Mbps central pipes we now have a new backhaul link which is completely seperate and dedicated to our 21CN traffic. (Note: IP Connect isn’t expected until sometime next year.) [...]

[#5]

[...] like some more information we have a couple more blogs from us at the start of the trial and an update on how things are going from September. There’s also a blog from our Marketing director, Neil Armstrong, about his [...]