Be follows Virgin with 48MB broadband promise

16 December 2008 17:13 GMT / By Stuart Miles

UK broadband provider Be, jumping on the 50Mb broadband package announced by Virgin Media on Monday, has announced that it is trialling its own super fast broadband service to offer customers a 48Mb broadband connection in their home.

"Be Broadband has successfully completed their first trials to double the speed of their up to 24Mb broadband to almost 50Mb", the company's blog says the day after the Virgin announcement.

However rather than offer a new fibre optic connection to its customers, Be's approach, which is owned by O2, is to "bond" two high-speed connections together – doubling customers’ current speed.

According to the ISP, the initial trial has already been run across the central London Paddington exchange, however it admits that due to the connection technology - i.e., ADSL - users weren't experiencing the promised 48Mb connection speed.

"Be’s customers have reported real-world download speeds of between 30Mb and 45Mb", said Felix Geyr, Managing Director of Be Broadband in the blog post.

The service differs from that announced by Virgin on Monday as it will allow customers to get equivalent speeds through standard BT phone lines.