News PPPoE authentication in final pilot to providers

From ADSLGuide:

BT Wholesale has slowly been upgrading the various types of BT Central (pipes used to connect an ISP to the BT Wholesale network) to support PPPoE authentication. The last stage involves the the rollout of an auto-sensing mechanism for PPPoE on the original implementations of 2, 10, 34 and 155Mbps BT Central connections.

PPPoE is an alternate method of authenticating yourself with the service provider, and the vast majority of ADSL kit sold in the UK will support it now. Though there generally is no benefit in switching from PPPoA to PPPoE. Where it will make a difference is that the Windows XP Broadband connection wizard uses PPPoE, which could allow providers to drop the old dial-up style interface. The other benefit is people who want to use a Cable/DSL router, until now if you had a single IP address ADSL account there was a limited choice of hardware, with PPPoE the choice widens in terms of what you can use for the modem - with PPPoE it will be possible to use any modem that supports PPPoE bridging.

More here

N.B:

PPPoA = Point to Point Protocol over ATM
PPPoE = Point to Point Protocol over Ethernet