BT’s Broadband investment for more locations

MORE than 27,000 homes and businesses in the North West could benefit from super-fast broadband, BT has announced.
 
Carlisle and Southport are among the latest locations included in BT’s £2.5bn roll-out of fibre broadband.
 
The latest upgrades are due to be completed by Autumn 2012 and will take the planned roll-out of super-fast broadband to more than 1.5 million homes and businesses in the region.
 
BT’s local network business Openreach expects to make super-fast fibre broadband available to two-thirds of UK homes and businesses by the end of 2015.

To do this it is building the new network using a mix of fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) and fibre to the premises (FTTP) technologies. Both provide much faster speeds than those previously available.
 
FTTC currently offers download speeds of up to 40Mbps and upstream speeds up to 10Mbps. Openreach is planning to roughly double these speeds next year. FTTP, where the fibre goes directly to homes and businesses, will offer speeds of up to 100Mbps.
 
Mike Blackburn, BT’s North West regional director, said: “BT’s roll-out of super-fast broadband is marching on at a rapid pace. Residents and businesses in these latest locations can look forward to choosing a high-speed connection over a network offering an unrivalled choice of suppliers, which keeps competition thriving and costs down.
 
“Our latest investment will propel internet users at home and at work into the 21st century fast lane, and marks another milestone in the development of the region’s next generation communications.”

Blackburn said BT was conscious that rural areas must not be forgotten, and welcomed a pledge from the government for funding for hard-to-reach locations.