BT pushes the boundries of super-fast broadband
BT announced its latest plans for super-fast broadband, to further support the Government’s vision of creating the best super-fast broadband network in Europe by 2015. The company’s commitment involves plans to conduct a technical trial of one Gigabit fibre broadband speeds in Kesgrave, Suffolk and the inclusion of up to 40 rural market towns in the next phase of BT’s deployment of super-fast fibre broadband.
The 1Gb/s trial will commence in early 2011 and will see BT deliver some of the fastest residential speeds over fibre broadband anywhere in the world today. The purpose of the technical trial is to demonstrate the maximum speed capabilities of BT’s Fibre-to-the-Premise (FTTP) product - namely its ability to deliver downstream speeds of 1Gb/s and upstream speeds of 400Mb/s to businesses and consumers, subject to the appropriate network conditions and customer equipment. The trial will test the delivery of broadband speeds ten times faster than BT’s current FTTP product, which is set to launch commercially next year.
As part of BT’s commitment to delivering faster broadband speeds to more rural parts of the UK and in response to high customer demand for fibre in these areas, selected market towns where premises and cabinets are suitably clustered will now be eligible for fibre deployment. BT will therefore be including up to 40 rural market towns in the next phase of exchanges for fibre broadband. These areas will be able to enjoy the benefits of the technology from late 2011/early 2012. BT plans to announce the next list of exchanges in January 2011.
BT remains committed to its £2.5 billion pledge to roll-out fibre broadband to two thirds of the UK by 2015 and to working with Government to find ways of delivering fibre to the remaining third of UK homes and businesses.
Ahead of Jeremy Hunt’s broadband speech on Monday, BT confirmed it is ready to contribute further funding should it win public money in any of the Government’s tenders aimed at bringing fibre to rural areas. The Government has indicated it will make £830 million available over the course of this parliament and the next. Were BT to win funds on that scale, the company’s initial estimates suggest that, with supplementary funding, it could extend fibre to up to 90 per cent of UK premises, assuming no unfavourable changes to the investment or regulatory environment.
Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, said: “BT’s fantastic range of measures would, on top of the £830 million the Government is investing, go a huge way to delivering our ambition for the UK to have the best broadband system in Europe by 2015. BT has said it will contribute further funding to supplement any of the public money the company may win when we hold tenders for rolling out rural broadband. It's a great example of public funding and initiative stimulating private sector investment. A super-fast broadband network is vital to the country’s economic growth and the development of our high tech and creative industries, as well as the reform of public services. I will be setting out on Monday how we can do even more to boost broadband roll-out - by stimulating competition and creating an environment in which business can flourish by removing barriers and cutting costs.”
Olivia Garfield, BT’s director of strategy, said: “We intend to continually push the limits of our super-fast broadband programme in terms of the technology and the geography. While everyday consumers don’t require Gigabit speeds today, it’s important that we test the maximum speed capabilities of our fibre broadband product to ensure that it is fully future proofed. Furthermore, by evolving our deployment model for fibre we have been able to push the geographical boundaries of super-fast broadband. It allows us to build a commercial case for rolling out fibre to selected towns in rural areas to satisfy the growing appetite for faster broadband speeds. Both of these developments will further advance BT’s super-fast broadband vision and will assist the Government in achieving its aim of creating the best super-fast broadband network in Europe.”
For more information, visit bt.com.