BT expands Digital Vault online storage

All your files scrapped if you don't log into the free service for three months

BT has opened its Digital Vault service to all internet users to allow them to store their files online.

The basic version of the service has been available to BT Total Broadband customers since the start of October, but is now available to anyone.

The Basic package is free and initially offers 2GB to all users, although anyone not on BT Broadband will see this reduced to 1GB on 9 January 2007.

Digital Vault Basic lets users manually upload and then remotely access their files.For security, files are encrypted when transmitted and stored in a secure data centre.

However, the free accounts must be used once every 90 days or the data stored within them will be deleted.

For £4.99 a month, customers get a 20GB allowance and can use BT Digital Vault Backup Manager, which automatically backs up new or changed files on your system. The paid-for account also lets customers share their files with others and users won't lose their data if they forget to log in.

Anyone signing up to the £4.99 service before 8 January 2007 gets the first two months free.

BT faces competition from Xdrive, which offers 5GB free storage, Box.net which offers 1GB free storage and Apple's .mac service which offers 1GB of storage, among other services, for £69 a year.