BT’s New, Faster Internet Is Already Too Slow for Its Rivals
- Former phone monopoly touts fast copper as cheaper option
- Rivals Vodafone, Sky want U.K. to split off BT’s network unit
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East of Ipswich, on a former Royal Air Force base where World War II aces once took off to fight the Luftwaffe, British telecommunications provider BT Group Plc is testing what it calls the near future of broadband.
By the end of the year, thousands of homes will be hooked up to BT’s G.fast networking hardware, which the company says will be enough for customers to stream high-definition TV to multiple sets, download movies onto a laptop, and chat on Skype all at the same time, without any dropouts or buffering. And, not incidentally, it’s a lot cheaper to install than fiber-optic cable.