BT Highway
Encyclopedia
BT Highway was a UK retail
ISDN2e service from British Telecom
which was announced in November 1997 and withdrawn in February 2007. In the domestic market, it was sold as BT Home Highway and for small businesses, BT Business Highway. These monikers were simply used to differentiate billing schemes; the hardware for both services used the name BT Highway.
of 75-150ms
compared to 150-300ms). BT Highway was available five or more years before the availability of broadband
, especially in rural areas where ISDN was available over far longer distances, and far more telephone exchange
s, than the initial roll-out of ADSL,
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 POTS
analogue telephones at the same time into the same master panel; normally an ISDN master panel provides only ISDN sockets. As with a standard ISDN2e service, it was possible to mix and match concurrent connections to provide two concurrent analogue phone calls, one analogue phone call and one ISDN 64kbit/s call, two 64 kbit/s ISDN calls or one 128 kbit/s ISDN call. The analogue sockets were standard UK BS6312 sockets
and included a ring capacitor.
Unlike an analogue master socket, BT Highway required external power from a mains electric adaptor. However, in the event of a power cut, the system still allowed analogue telephone calls to be made through the first analogue socket.
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).
Retail
Retail consists of the sale of physical goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be...
ISDN2e service from British Telecom
BT Group
BT Group plc is a global telecommunications services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is one of the largest telecommunications services companies in the world and has operations in more than 170 countries. Through its BT Global Services division it is a major supplier of...
which was announced in November 1997 and withdrawn in February 2007. In the domestic market, it was sold as BT Home Highway and for small businesses, BT Business Highway. These monikers were simply used to differentiate billing schemes; the hardware for both services used the name BT Highway.
Notability in the UK Internet Timeline
Due to ISDN's ability to establish connections in less than 3 seconds, BT Highway provided many people's first experience of a near always-on Internet connection. The service also provided many people's first experience of an Internet connection that ran faster than a dial-up modem (up to 128kbit/s compared to 56 kbit/s, and with a latencyLag
Lag is a common word meaning to fail to keep up or to fall behind. In real-time applications, the term is used when the application fails to respond in a timely fashion to inputs...
of 75-150ms
Millisecond
A millisecond is a thousandth of a second.10 milliseconds are called a centisecond....
compared to 150-300ms). BT Highway was available five or more years before the availability of broadband
Broadband
The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...
, especially in rural areas where ISDN was available over far longer distances, and far more telephone exchange
Telephone exchange
In the field of telecommunications, a telephone exchange or telephone switch is a system of electronic components that connects telephone calls...
s, than the initial roll-out of ADSL,
Distinctive Hardware
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 POTS
Plain old telephone service
Plain old telephone service is the voice-grade telephone service that remains the basic form of residential and small business service connection to the telephone network in many parts of the world....
analogue telephones at the same time into the same master panel; normally an ISDN master panel provides only ISDN sockets. As with a standard ISDN2e service, it was possible to mix and match concurrent connections to provide two concurrent analogue phone calls, one analogue phone call and one ISDN 64kbit/s call, two 64 kbit/s ISDN calls or one 128 kbit/s ISDN call. The analogue sockets were standard UK BS6312 sockets
British telephone sockets
British telephone sockets were introduced in their current plug and socket form on 19 November 1981 by British Telecom to allow subscribers to connect their own telephones...
and included a ring capacitor.
Unlike an analogue master socket, BT Highway required external power from a mains electric adaptor. However, in the event of a power cut, the system still allowed analogue telephone calls to be made through the first analogue socket.
Connection to the Internet was typically performed either by a dedicated ISDN router or by an ISDN PCI
Peripheral Component Interconnect
Conventional PCI is a computer bus for attaching hardware devices in a computer...
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).
Introduction and Withdrawal
BT Highway was announced in November 1997 and introduced on an exchange-by-exchange basis starting in September 1998. BT stopped selling new services on 5 September 2005 and stopped providing BT Highway services altogether in February 2007, encouraging users to migrate to ADSL. Where migration to ADSL was not possible, BT continued to sell their ISDN2e service for business customers only.External links
- BT Home Highway - QuakeTweaks.com - includes photos of BT Highway master panel