BE Un Limited, BE Broadband, BEthere or simply BE. All of these are the names by which you may have heard of this particular UK internet service provider, but to save confusion we'll refer to them as BE from now on. BE are relative newcomers to the UK broadband providing market having started up in 2004 and with their first customer connected in late 2005.
However, their young age shouldn't be seen as a suggestion that this is a business in its infancy as BE have always been about providing the fastest possible internet services for their users.
BE started off life 5 years ago with the aim of offering the fastest ADSL broadband connection available to UK consumers, and initially their services were only available in Birmingham, Manchester and London.
However, things are very different today and now over 1000 telephone exchanges up and down the UK have a BE Broadband presence in them. BE have been all about breaking records since they started trading, and they proudly boast of the fact that their first customer was able to achieve an astonishing 18.5Mbps average download speed.
BE Broadband's initial aim was to provide the fastest ADSL broadband connection in Britain, and with their 24Mbps service they have certainly achieved that goal. Though they've been matched by competition from Bulldog, they've yet to be bettered.
Because of the nature of ADSL technology, which uses existing BT landlines and telephone exchanges, 24Mbps is the maximum that the lines will be capable of, and until fibre optic cabling becomes a more widespread solution, BE Broadband offer the fastest possible interne connection available to the widest audience.
So that's covered the basics of what BE set out to provide, but what else in the company's brief trading history might be of interest? Well, to account for their established mainstream status you'll be pleased to know that this can be explained by the fact that they were bought by O2 in 2006, hence becoming a facet of a much larger company. O2 took advantage of BE's broadband know how to implement their own home broadband service, and with millions of satisfied customers around the UK they certainly made a wise investment.
The important thing to remember is that though BE are owned by a much larger company, they operate ostensibly on an independent level, offering mainstream service quality with the customer service ethic of a much smaller business. Their name is designed to suggest the freedom and personal service which they hope that they are able to provide.
You will no doubt be wondering whether BE is the right broadband provider for you, and perhaps whether they have any plans for future developments to their services. Well, BE Broadband is a company with its head well and truly in the dreamlike world of the internet, or to use a more traditional metaphor, with its finger on the digital pulse.
It's the only UK ISP to have an account with the virtual world that is Second Life, and they also support third party development and open source software groups. Through the BE broadband community problems are solved, and with their 'More than 8Meg' campaign the future of broadband in the UK is forged.
