BT have started their pilot test of fibre broadband in parts of North London and Wales. The two areas chosen to start receiving Fibre To The Cabinet (FTTC) are Muswell Hill and Whitchurch.
The trial services will be available via BT Openreach which means that other broadband providers, including Sky and O2 Broadband will also be included in offering the FTTC to their customers.
Both of the locations that the pilot schemes are being tested at have over 15,000 premises (residential and business) and 100 roadside cabinets.
It is envisaged that customers will receive broadband download speeds of up to 40Mb and upload speeds of 5Mb.
Fibre To The Cabinet involves laying fibre optic cable from the telephone exchange to the street side cabinet and then using the existing copper lines to connect the cabinet to the house.
FTTC is the cheaper alternative to FTTH (Fibre To The Home) which involves taking the fibre optic cable from the telephone exchange right to the house which also offers the fastest speeds.