UK - in response to Virgin offering 100 Mbps, BT will offer 110 Mbps early in 2011

[think broadband] With Virgin Media expected to announce a launch of 100Mbps broadband to its users before the year is out, BT Openreach have come forward with a new offering that will bring 110Mbps broadband to the country from March 2011. The new product, to be part of Openreach's Generic Ethernet Access (GEA) fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) options, will be available from £258 a year (£21.54 per month) at wholesale cost.

The figure of 110meg is a bit of a strange one, but is obviously an attempt to hamper Virgin's ability to market their new 100meg broadband as the fastest broadband service in the UK. With BT's fibre-to-the-home/premises services (FTTH/P) only being available on a small scale, Virgin will definitely have the lead on numbers of people who are able to connect at faster speeds. Whether people will actually opt for these new products is another question. Lets also not forget that Virgin are also currently undertaking trials of 200meg broadband so the speed-wars will not end here.

Openreach to offer 110Mbps fibre broadband from March 2011