Cambridge to get there first

BT has unveiled plans to link Cambridge into its experimental ultra-high speed telecoms network. The university, businesses and homes are set to become a part of the programme of testing and development. In later stages, BT plans to extend the same network to Paris, Frankfurt and other cities on the continent.

Cambridge is also to get early upgrades of its exchanges, bringing in broadband access services. The technology is known as asymmetrical digital subscriber line (or ADSL). BT says this will turn ordinary twisted pair copper phone lines into high-speed carriers, operating between 10 and 40 times faster than the conventional modem. The lines can be used for data and voice simultaneously, without any interference.

One of the target user groups will be teleworkers who would benefit from faster access to corporate networks and the full range of information in them.

BT's director of advanced communications engineering Stewart Davies says: "High speed data backbones like this will form the basis of the electronic economy in Europe."

Elliott Chase