BT’s new fibre optic broadband service for businesses was launched last week. It offers up to 40mbps download speeds and a special ‘fast lane’ which gives right of way  to businesses at busy times.

Prices start at £30 per month with a 24 month contract and upload speeds of up to 2 Mbps. While up to 10Mbps speeds and a 24 month contract will cost £45 per month.  

12 month contracts are more expensive. £35 for BT Business Total Broadband Fibre and £50 for the advanced package.

Each package will include 500 minutes of BT’s Openzone Wi-Fi network, 24 hour technical support, 50MB of web space and 10 e-mail addresses.

BT expects the 10 Mbps upload speeds to be very attractive to small businesses wishing to send bigger  files. BT’s biggest competitor is Virgin Media who believe that their upspeeds are faster than BT’s but BT of course dispute this.

BT plans to make fibre optic broadband ( FTTC ) available to 4 million businesses and homes by the end of 2010 and available to 10 million businesses and homes by mid-2012.