BT Highway
BT Highway was a
Notability in the UK Internet timeline
Due to ISDN's ability to establish connections in less than 3 seconds, compared to 30–60 seconds for a dial-up modem, BT Highway provided many people's
Details
BT Highway was provided as a wall-mounted panel that supplemented an analogue master socket. A blank faceplate was placed across the analogue master socket so that all connections had to be performed through the panel.
BT Highway was distinctive because, unlike most ISDN services, it was aimed at both home and small-business users, and incorporated both analogue sockets (coloured white) and ISDN sockets (coloured blue). It was possible to plug in both Cat5 ISDN equipment and traditional
Unlike an analogue master socket, BT Highway required external power from a
Connection to the Internet was typically performed either by a dedicated ISDN router or by an ISDN PCI card. Later versions of BT Highway provided a USB port which PCs could connect to; a driver CD was supplied and the device was seen as an ISDN modem by Windows. As with ISDN2e, most brands of device typically allowed the user to automatically connect and drop the second ISDN channel to switch between 64 kbit/s and 128 kbit/s, depending on whether one channel was already being used (for example, for a simultaneous analogue telephone call).
Three phone numbers were provided as standard: two for the analogue ports and one for use by ISDN equipment. Home highway users were limited to these while business highway users could order Multiple Subscriber Numbering to get more phone numbers for ISDN equipment.[5]
Introduction and withdrawal
BT Highway was announced in November 1997[1] and introduced on an exchange-by-exchange basis starting in September 1998.[6] BT stopped selling new services on 5 September 2005 and stopped providing BT Highway services altogether in February 2007,[2] encouraging users to migrate to ADSL. Where migration to ADSL was not possible, BT continued to sell their ISDN2e service for business customers only.
References
- ^ a b Barrie, Chris (8 November 1997). "BT heralds new high-speed Internet surfing at drop in the ocean cost". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 26 September 2015.
- ^ a b "When and why did BT withdraw Home Highway?". Retrieved 13 June 2008.[permanent dead link]
- ^ a b "Ciao! Reviews of BT Home Highway". Archived from the original on 3 June 2008. Retrieved 13 June 2008.
- ^ "Sir George Young MP calls for "Broadband Access for All"". 17 January 2002. Archived from the original on 6 September 2002.
- ^ "Beginner's Guide to ISDN". Archived from the original on 19 June 2000.
- ^ "BT service promises ISDN speed over phone lines". ZDNet. 21 August 1998. Archived from the original on 25 July 2008.
External links
- BT Home Highway - QuakeTweaks.com - includes photos of BT Highway master panel