Broadband Max USB Modem Advisory Information
Posted on 30, Mar, 2006

With Broadband Max being just around the corner, some information was brought to our attention that stated that one of our rivals was claiming that USB modems would not work with new Broadband Max services being deployed by BT. A claim that yielded investigation.

Sure enough on their web pages they do state that all ADSL USB modems don't work. This is a rather overstatement to make, and strictly not true, as explained below, and comes across as if they trying to sell lots of Broadband Routers as part of the service.

While we would agree that routers offer a more seamless broadband experience, the statement about USB needs detailing.

Lets look at the spec of USB:
If you have a usb v1.0 port then the max speed is 1.5mbps
If you have a usb v1.1 port then its 12mbps
If you have a usb v2.0 port then its 480mbps

Therefore to put this into english. Older machines with type 1 USB ports and hardware (such as USB Broadband modems) will indeed max out at 1.5mbps

However, newer machines, and USB modems sold in the last 2 years are generally of type 2 ports (some machines have both type 1 and type 2, therefore ensure Broadband hardware is connected to type 2 ports). At the very least type 1.1 will be covering a good amount and therefore should be fine for newer Broadband Max services.

If you are of course currently working on a 2mbps service, then your hardware would at the very least be of a type 1.1 and therefore able to support Broadband Max services.

A final point, if your in a position to indeed have older hardware (type 1), it's worth knowing that services will continue to function, but at the max speed indictated above.

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