April 25, 2006

Telstra Announces "Enhanced" Business Broadband For U.K.

By David Sims, TMCnet Contributing Editor

Telstra Europe, a UK-based “alternative business telephony and data service provider,” has announced the launch of an enhanced range of Business Broadband services across the UK with speeds of up to 8Mbps.

Of course, the actual broadband speed attained will depend on the length and quality of the telephone line. Telstra Europe will provide the fastest speed possible up to the maximum quoted speed of the service purchased.

As competition within the UK broadband market continues to intensify, Telstra’s enhanced service offerings – Business Broadband Max and Business Broadband Max Pro – are billed as providing customers with free installation, high speed connectivity and nationwide coverage.

Earlier this month Telstra Europe announced that it selected NetApp storage to support Cambridge, England's first Internet data center, a facility providing managed storage, disaster recovery, and business continuity services to British businesses.

The center is Telstra Europe's fifth purpose built site in the UK. The company also has existing data centers in London Docklands, Birmingham, Manchester and Sunderland. Located at St. John's Innovation Park in Cambridge, the facilities include a telecommunications room, a test lab and managed hosting and colocation facilities.

Telstra’s also offering “competitive pricing plans” backed up with 24/7 customer and technical support, and the package includes .uk domain name, e-mail and web hosting.

David Thorn, CEO, Telstra Europe, claimed Telstra is “one of the first providers to launch an enhanced business broadband service across the UK with download speeds of up to 8Mbps.”

The Business Broadband Max Pro service costs £59.99 per month ($107) and is recommended for office users with 10 or more staff.  In comparison with the Business Broadband Max service at £39.99 ($71) per month, it provides increased maximum upload speeds and throughput capacity for businesses which have greater bandwidth requirements.

David Sims is contributing editor for TMCnet. For more articles please visit David Sims' columnist page.

(source: http://voipforsmb.tmcnet.com/news/2006/04/25/106917.htm)