Faster broadband at home

Wednesday 12 February 2014

Thousands of homes will see huge increases in internet speeds after JT announced major changes following months of criticism of speeds and costs.

The company says that the changes could see Jersey climb into the top five in the world for download speeds, and that the improvements from 10 July - which will affect customers on new fibreoptic and old copper cable connections - will enable the whole family to enjoy social networking, video-calling, downloading music and film and streaming TV via the Internet quickly and at the same time.

The company is currently being criticised for widespread problems and confusion over its new billing system.

According to today's announcement, for an extra £5 per month JT is replacing its 2,4,8 and 16 Mb/s wholesale products with a single download speed of up to 20 Mb/s, for all broadband services provided over the existing copper network. For the same price, the 24% of JT customers who are already connected to the new fibre network will be able to get a guaranteed speed of 50 Mb/s.

JT says that no one will be forced to pay more, and that customers who want to stick with the basic 2 Mb/s connection to do simple web browsing and email will be able to do so at the current price of £17.99 until 2016. 

The company is on course to connect the rest of its broadband customers to the network by the end of 2016.

JT’s Chief Executive Officer Graeme Millar said: “We’ve listened to the feedback that we need to improve our basic broadband service, and I’m really pleased to be able to set out a way forward today. Many thousands of islanders will see an improved service from JT at no extra cost – in fact depending on their service, many will see prices fall.

“These changes have been enabled by the Gigabit Jersey project, and they will see the island’s average broadband speed climb significantly; which is important given how much we all now rely on online sources for so much information, services and entertainment. The pace of change will only increase in the years to come, and JT is installing a network which means people in Jersey will be able to keep up – we are seeing customers opt for higher speeds every day, in increasing numbers.”

The changes are subject to sign-off by the regulator. 

Customers currently on the 4 Mb/s service will get a a quicker service at no extra cost, whilst customers currently paying for the 8 or 16 Mb/s will get a better service for less - a total of £22.99 a month.