The system, which Abica is rolling out in partnership with BT, promises not only a dramatic improvement in broadband speeds – allowing much faster transfer of large files – but also potential cost savings of up to 80%.   It will radically alter data transfer by giving end users an unprecedented and massive 60Mb of download speed and, perhaps even more crucially, a tenfold increase in upload speed to 5Mb.
 
Abica is also predicting a significant take-up of other parts of its extensive telecoms portfolio as a direct consequence of its involvement with the introduction of the new fibre to the cabinet, or FTTC, product.
 
David Munro, (right) joint MD at Abica, said: “The increase in both download and upload speeds with FTTC is remarkable and the product will at last start to realise the full potential of broadband.”
 
FTTC is aimed at business customers for whom data connectivity is a major issue and for whom planning  networks is a vital ingredient in their communications strategy.
 
Currently most businesses have broadband connected by ADSL, or asymmetric digital subscriber lines. ADSL provides a much faster download speed than upload speed, hence 'asymmetric'. While businesses can expect download speeds of up to 8mb, upload typically only runs at 0.5mb. For businesses sending large quantities of data, the time this takes is acting as a significant barrier to progress and growth.
 
Munro said: “With the integration of internet telephony, which is really proliferating across the whole country just now, the upload speeds just aren’t cutting it.”
 
Abica has been appointed to run the first trial in Scotland of BT’s £3bn  roll-out of faster internet services. At the root of the system is the relationship of massive capacity fibre telephony cable to the simple copper telephone wires which make the final link into homes and businesses.
 
David Munro explained: “We are all currently using some kind of fibre optic connectivity – that’s what’s in the main telephone exchange – but the exchange could be a number of miles away from your business.
 
“So there are local telephone exchanges, from which copper wires lead to the little green cabinets you see at the side of the road with a spagehtti of wires inside them. The cabinet then distributes data to business on copper.
 
“What FTTC does is replace the connection from the exchange to the cabinet with fibre, so that the connectivity is delivered over copper for a much shorter distance. Since the distance that data is carried over copper is the governor of download speeds, it is obvious that the shorter the distance the better.”

Munro said: “It will make a transformational difference to the way business communicates and how people network. It will allow us to create wide area networks which will permit companies with geographically separate divisions to allow all their computers to talk to each other.
 
“At the moment, they have to rely on site-specific local area networks or pay substantial costs upfront for very expensive fibre connections between premises. Now they will be able to use internet protocol virtual private networks at a fraction, perhaps a tenth, of the cost of inter-site fibre connection.”
 
As a telecoms service provider, Abica will deal with the end user in a wholesale agreement with BT. Its launch partner will be leading luxury car dealership and coach operator Parks Motor Group, which will involve its site in Hillington in the trial. Parks is currently using dark fibre to maintain communications with another four sites and abica is proposing to connect the company using FTTC – and predicting a reduction of 80% in the company’s costs as a result.

5Mb upload? Dream on there Scotland!