BT Infinity

To infinity broadband and... well, that's it.

This review is all you need to know about BT's new superfast service.

How superfast?

BT and Virgin Media are the only major UK providers to offer FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) broadband throughout the country.

Even so, Infinity services are currently only available to about six million premises. If all goes to plan, by the end of 2012 that'll be ten million and by the beginning of 2015 around fifteen million, or two out of every three households and businesses.

Both are using more or less the same technology: fibre to a cabinet, one of those green boxes on the street, and then copper cable from the cabinet to the home.

However, a slight difference in delivery, see our review of BT Infinity vs Virgin Media XXL for more on what that difference is, means that BT advertise speeds of 'up to' 40Mb - a full 10Mb less than Virgin XXL broadband.

That speed difference is real. The most recent Ofcom research into speeds found the following averages:

These figures demonstrate that fibre broadband connections are much less likely to see speeds drop over long distances or suffer problems with interference, both providers come much closer to delivering on the speeds they advertise than they could on ADSL lines.

BT Infinity does win over Virgin on speeds when it comes to uploads, however.

With unlimited downloads, BT promise up to 10Mb upload speeds while Virgin Media promise 10% of download (so 5Mb with XXL).

Note that BT Infinity with a 40GB download cap only offers up to 2Mb upload speeds.

Download limits

For more details on all the prices and each of the BT Infinity package options however - see our comparison table of BT Infinity deals.

BT Infinity has a choice of download limits: 40GB and unlimited.

Super-fast broadband is perfect for downloading music, email attachments and other files and streaming content.

40GB a month will be enough for watching about 12 hours of standard quality video online per month.

Another way to partially avoid this up-front cost is to go for the broadband + calls deal which only has a £25 installation fee.

Either way, bear in mind that you'll be subject to BT's fair-use policy which could lead to your broadband being slowed down at peak times or when you're a very heavy downloader (usually more than 300GB).

Virgin XXL broadband only has a fair use policy on very heavy uploads during peak times.

Add calls

To get BT Infinity you'll need to have a working phone line.

Get one of the plain BT infinity packages and that phone line can be with whoever you like. Take a '+ calls' deals and you'll get a small discount for sticking with BT for both services.

How small? Well, £2 a month compared with getting the same BT line rental and calls deal separately.

Every little helps but it's not much which, we assume, is why BT have knocked some cash off for the first 3 months too.

BT Infinity Home Hub

The new BT Home Hub has been designed to cut out signal interference that can slow down wireless broadband connections in the home.

BT impressively boasts that it also runs on half the electricity of an energy efficient lightbulb, although they don't quantify that specifically.

In terms of energy saving, more useful perhaps is the 'power save' feature, which will reduce power consumption when the connection isn't being used without disconnecting the broadband - something which can cause havoc with smart equipment in the exchange reducing speeds on what it detects to be an "unstable" line.

Is BT Infinity Any Good?

BT infinity broadband is super-fast from the big daddy of broadband: that means 24/7 telephone support and optional extras like TV and online storage.

The prices are excellent too - both deals are cheaper than Virgin XXL broadband and highly competitive when compared against other fast broadband deals.

However, it's worth noting that BT Infinity is also available as a resold service through other providers, including Plusnet, who offer similar deals for less than BT, although perhaps without quite so many frills.

All in all, race to Infinity sounds about right.

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