BT trials satellite internet

BT Group PLC
15 April 2002



April 15, 2002

                           BT WHOLESALE TO TRIAL FAST

                             INTERNET BY SATELLITE

BT Wholesale today announced that it is to start trials of a new satellite
delivery service for high speed internet access across mainland UK.

It will allow always-on receipt of e-mail as well as fast download of music,
photos, presentations and other documents and is aimed at small businesses and
high use residential customers. If successful, the service could be made
available throughout the UK including rural areas beyond the reach of DSL
broadband and cable.

Paul Reynolds, chief executive of BT Wholesale, said: "This is an exciting
development capable of delivering the benefits of fast, 'always-on', internet
downloading right across the UK. It is not true broadband, but it will give much
faster internet access to many people who could otherwise be denied.

"We believe this will be a valuable, additional way of providing fast internet
to areas beyond the reach of conventional broadband and shows we are pushing
forward on many fronts with simple, competitive solutions for customers."

The service will download via a 65cm receive-only satellite dish, at speeds of
up to 256 kbit/s and will also provide 'always-on' satellite downstream delivery
of emails and selected internet pages. Higher speeds, up to 4Mbit/s, will be
available on a pay-as-used basis as the trial progresses. The return path will
be via a conventional phone line.

Experience in Europe shows there is a demand for this type of service, and,
as an infill technology, BT Wholesale believes this will also be the case in the
UK.

Currently more than 70 per cent of internet users in the UK are connected
to 1010 BT exchanges which have been enabled for ADSL broadband. Work is
underway to enable a further 100 exchanges and BT is continuing to explore a
range of technologies to meet the broadband needs of customers outside those
areas.

The satellite high speed internet access trial will start in late May, and is
scheduled to last for six months. Service provider triallists will be selected
on criteria to include willingness to market in non ADSL-enabled areas.

The trial wholesale price is likely to be less than £15 a month rental to
service providers with a one-off connection charge, expected to be less than
£400, for the equipment and installation of the dish at the end user's site.

The charge to end-users will be set by the service providers. End users will
also have to build in the cost of the phone line to upload their data back to
the internet. It is anticipated that download speeds of up to 256kbit/s and '
always-on' downloading of emails and selected internet pages will be inclusive
in the monthly rental fee, and free of usage charge.

There would be a further usage charge for a number of speed selections up to
4Mbit/s - enabling customers to opt for faster speeds only when they require
larger amounts of data.

                ------------------------------------------------




Inquiries about this news release should be made to the BT Group Newsroom on its
   24 hour number: 020 7356 5369. From outside the UK dial [phone].

               All news releases can be accessed at our web site:

                           www.btplc.com/mediacentre





                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange