The current line up of BT broadband deals has just seen a super fast addition in the form of the first of its fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) connections, offering up to 40Mbps download speeds and 10Mbps upload speeds.

After trials took place in London and Glasgow, BT has begun to roll out its new fibre optic technology that will still rely on copper telephone wiring for the last mile of provision, but will see fibre optic connections linking the cabinets servicing streets in the UK to the main broadband network.

By 2011 BT plans to make FTTC available to 4 million homes around the UK and the 40Mbps is a significant improvement over the current maximum download speed of 20Mbps that BT offers.

These new fibre optic BT broadband deals are set to cost from £19.99 a month with an 18 month contract, thus requiring longer commitment than other packages on offer. There will also be an installation fee, but BT is willing to waive this if you sign up for a more expensive and comprehensive monthly package.

BT has said that its new fibre services will provide better opportunities for houses with multiple internet users trying to get online simultaneously and will also offer faster downloads and higher quality video streaming.

The cheapest fibre broadband deal from BT will come with a 20GB monthly data allowance, although costlier packages will have unlimited downloads coupled with a fair use policy to watch out for.

BT will not be the only provider offering deals that use the FTTC technology, as it will be offered to third party wholesalers to resell, as is currently the case with ADSL broadband.

Simon Gerrard, Simple Broadband’s Communication Manager noted that “this will produce competition within the market that will ensure that consumers will be able to obtain the best possible deals on next-generation broadband connections”.

£18 million of investment is being allocated to help boost broadband speeds across Northern Ireland for home users and local businesses looking to make the most out of fast broadband connections. The Department of Finance and Personnel has been put in charge of distributing the public funds and it will be pumping most of the money into BT to ensure wider coverage and increased download speeds.

The Department for Enterprise, Trade and Investment allocated the significant funding last week and it is said to be part of a government initiative to bridge the investment gap between what the telecoms networks were going to spend and the level of funding that should ensure blanket broadband coverage in Northern Ireland.

The government aims to provide 85 per cent of homes and businesses with BT broadband deals operating at a higher speed and wider availability by the start of 2011 and the £18 million will go towards ensuring that this target is reached.

BT has been commissioned to carry out the necessary upgrades and extensions to the current networks and the good news for residents of Northern Ireland is that both urban and rural areas will be included in the upcoming developments.

Although the initial phase will be completed within the next twelve months in order to meet deadlines, the deal commits BT to continue the roll-out and support of the new network until 2015. BT will still be the owner of the infrastructure, but with the public funding it is committed to ensuring that broadband is made available in areas that it might have dismissed as not financially viable.

Simon Gerrard of Simple Broadband confirmed that “home broadband customers in Northern Ireland will really benefit from the high speed BT broadband deals that will become available once the funding is brought to bear and the work is completed.”

2010 is set to be a good year for businesses around Wales after news that BT is planning to roll out two high-speed broadband technologies across the country emerged. BT Business MD Nigel Stagg said that the availability of ADSL connections capable of up to 24Mbps download speeds should become widespread next year and added that the 40Mbps fibre optic connections that BT is installing as part of its 21st Century Network upgrades are also going to benefit business users.

24Mbps ADSL connections are already available in Bangor and Caernarfon and Mr Stagg indicated that business customers in other towns such as Wrexam should also be eligible for a faster connection for their enterprises.

The most important of the new broadband technologies that BT has promised to offer Welsh business customers is fibre optic connectivity. BT is using Fibre-To-The-Cabinet (FTTC), which will allow customers to continue to use their existing copper land line telephone connections to provide the last mile of connectivity whilst the rest of the work is performed by a fibre optic network.

In the first instance, business broadband customers in Wales should expect download speeds of up to 40Mbps and upload speeds of 2-15Mbps if they sign up for a fibre optic broadband package from BT. The download speeds are set to increase as time passes, with a target of up to 60Mbps for FTTC customers in the near future.

In the first half of 2010 BT plans to roll out FTTC at 100 different telephone exchanges around the UK, with a small proportion allocated to Wales.

Simple Broadband`s Communications Manager Simon Gerrard commented that BT’s plans to improve the availability of high-speed broadband for businesses everywhere was “an exciting prospect and one that should significantly drive recovery and growth over the next decade.”

BT has recently announced some fairly significant developments which will please shareholders in the firm as well as business and home broadband customers around the country.

The first piece of news highlights the fact that BT has just passed the five million customer mark for its broadband service. It sent the lucky 5 millionth customer, a chip shop worker from Glasgow, to see the Winter Olympics to mark the milestone which assures BT’s place as the UK largest fixed line broadband provider.

The second exciting development came when BT announced that it was currently ahead of schedule for the roll out of the latest fibre optic broadband technology. The intention now is to make fibre optic broadband available to 10 million customers around the UK in time for the 2012 Olympics and so far the £1.5 billion project is moving along swiftly.

In the last two years BT revealed that it has gained the custom of over one million new business and home broadband users and a spokesperson for the company said that the growth in the number of business customers signing up for broadband was set to continue as higher speeds become available across a wider area.

BT said that with the current work rate it would be able to connect 4 million customers to the internet using the new fibre optic network by the end of 2010 and the pressures of being official communications partner and sponsor of the 2012 Olympics are clearly helping BT to stay on task and stick to its promises.

BT CEO Ian Livingstone said that they expected to gain support from the government in order to ensure that businesses could have access to high speed broadband connections in time for 2012.

It is clear that by the end of next year people looking to compare business broadband packages will be faced with a much wider selection of high speed connections than those that are currently available.

Industry regulator Ofcom has revealed figures which show that the price of broadband in the UK is considerably lower than in the majority of other nations around the world.

The recent report analysed figures from various developed nations including Germany and Italy, identifying that the cost of most digital TV, home phone, broadband and mobile services is lower in the UK than anywhere else.

The figures concluded that a family of four in the UK could pay as little as £108 for mobile phones, broadband, home phone and TV packages to cover the entire household. This includes an 8Mbps broadband connection and mobile phones for every member of the family.

Deals covering all of these services in a bundle, which is usually the cheapest way in which families can pay for them, would cost customers in Italy 28 per cent more. In terms of value, Italy is the UK’s closest rival, although the gap in average prices is significant.

Ofcom’s CEO Ed Richards indicated that the low price of broadband in the UK was due to a highly competitive market. With BT broadband deals and bundles competing with comparable packages from Virgin Media and Tiscali, prices are likely to stay low and continue to fall in the UK over the coming months.

Mr Richards also cited innovation within the UK broadband industry as key to its continued success and the wide availability of digital services despite recent criticism of government plans for the future.

In other research from Ofcom, it was discovered that over 35 per cent of all UK households take advantage of BT broadband deals or similar in order to receive additional services including home phone and digital TV from a single provider.

A new strategy to help protect the most sensitive members of society from the potential threats inherent online has been launched by the Government.

Recent government statistics revealed that 99 per cent of all children aged between 8 and 17 had access to the internet and of that grouping just under a 5th claim to have been exposed to indecent or inappropriate material on the internet.

In order to combat fears of online safety for young broadband users, the UK Council for Child Internet Safety has set down the new guidelines as part of the Green Cross Code for internet protection.

A three-pronged recommendation, called the Digital Code of Zip It, Block It, Flag It, is key to helping parents have confidence that the youngest members of their family will avoid coming to harm whilst online.

This code involves making sure that children do not divulge personal information to strangers, do not open suspicious email messages and if they do come into contact with inappropriate material or relationships online that the children feel able to tell a responsible adult about it.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke about the new scheme, identifying the importance of the internet in the education and entertainment of the younger generation. Mr Brown said that the internet use had to be properly supervised to ensure that the online world is as safe as the real world.

There are many BT broadband options which include parental blocks, preventing children from accessing inappropriate sites and other providers such as TalkTalk offer similar services to help promote and enable youngsters to enjoy broadband internet connections in their own homes whilst staying safe. Adults will now need to learn as much about broadband as their children.

Although the current range of BT business broadband packages has allowed far more businesses to connect to the internet at high speeds and enjoy the various perks of doing business online, experts predict that even bigger improvements will be instigated by further technology developments.

The various functions and applications of existing IT systems used by businesses around the UK will mutate as next-generation broadband networks are rolled out.

The biggest change is going to come when cloud computing services and virtualisation of server environments allow for businesses to move most of their IT services away from on-site solutions to remote, third party systems which are far more cost-effective.

BT’s managing director Bill Murphy spoke out about the benefits of cloud computing for businesses in a recent interview, but also said that IT firms themselves would have to adapt their methods to cope with business broadband technology.

Mr Murphy explained that the cost of the software which facilitates business in many sectors could be set to fall as BT business broadband packages of the future would significantly change the way in which solutions were delivered.

It is fibre optic cabling that most industry experts consider to be the most important development in the future of business broadband. Some networks in the largest UK cities are already offering speeds of up to 100Mbps for early-adopting enterprises and it is these speeds that will increase the viability of cloud computing and virtualisation.

This significant leap in download speeds that most business and home broadband users are expected to experience in the coming years will require many to completely alter their perceptions as to what is possible. Faster internet connections open up a whole host of exciting and profitable possibilities which will only continue to grow in significance as the future broadband technologies become more common.

Millions of pounds are being invested in the broadband infrastructure for Northern Ireland in order to offer much faster connections to home and business broadband customers around the country.

A total of over £48 million will be injected into the industry over the next year and a half, with the promise of improved speeds for both rural and urban customers.

Businesses who want to take advantage of high speed connections are in luck, as the plans include the provision of a 10Mbps minimum download speed for urban businesses, whilst a 2Mbps minimum is expected for rural businesses.

Completion of the improvements is targeted for mid-2011 and half of the money is being invested by British Telecom after it won the contract.

The remaining money is being provided from various public sector sources, including some from the European Union.

A spokesperson for the government said on announcing the plans that the money would not only enable faster broadband for all residents of Northern Ireland, regardless as to their location, but would also create up to 1000 new jobs as a result of the improved broadband infrastructure.

Cheap cable broadband using fibre optic technology will be key to the success of the investment scheme, although 166 telephone exchanges are being upgraded and various wireless broadband hotspots are also going to allow for wider coverage.

Many are pleased that the investment will help those in rural areas, where broadband connections are traditionally sluggish or non-existent. The inclusive nature of the plans is being heralded as a step in the right direction that other areas of the UK would do well to follow if growth and productivity are to be improved.

BT Chief Executive Ian Livingston said that cheap cable broadband provided using fibre optic technology would continue to be integral to increased speeds and wider availability of broadband in the future.

For those looking for broadband, phone and TV bundle package deals the recent offer from BT Broadband whereby the first 3 months of broadband access is free has seen real savings. However, Simple Broadband has been reminded by BT Broadband that the deal comes to an end in just over a week – the last day to sign up is 11 December.

The free broadband deal applies to phone, TV and broadband packages but if you are not interested in the TV element then it is also valid for the phone and broadband only packages too.

Simple Broadband’s Communications Manager, Simon Gerrard said: “BT Broadband’s 3 months free offer is a great opportunity ahead of Christmas and those looking to switch their supplier will need to move quickly.”

New plans have been unveiled by Virgin Media to offer the next generation of set top box technology. Virgin currently provides high speed fibre optic broadband and digital TV services for close to 10 million households in the UK.

It emerged that Virgin Media would be partnering with US firm TiVo, a name that has become synonymous with digital personal video recording in the United States, in order to provide a set top box which could record live television as well as offering broadband internet on customers’ televisions.

There are currently Virgin Media and BT Broadband options which allow for the combination of a digital TV package with a high speed connection, although no provider has yet managed to offer full internet access via a set top box.

Users will be able to take advantage of the high speed broadband connection to access a much wider variety of on-demand video content from various sources, expanding on the current Virgin Media offerings.

Virgin Media Chief Exec Neil Berkett said that his company was aiming to push ahead with the development of the technology in order to gain an early advantage in the next generation of subscription TV.

Although there has been no official release date for the new set top box and its associated services, a source at Virgin Media has confirmed that these will both become available some time in 2010.

Virgin Media is not the only home broadband provider to be partnering in anticipation of a more integrated future for television and the internet. It is likely that BT Broadband options which may include on-demand video services from the BBC, currently codenamed Project Canvas, could also be emerging with support from a new set top box in the near future.