BT are to increase the number of homes that will be able to receive it’s fibre optic broadband when they announce their annual results later this week.
BT had originally planned on having 40% of the UK, or around 10 million homes to be connected to the new superfast next-generation fibre optic broadband network by the Summer 2012 at a cost of around £1.5 bn, this date had been pushed forward from the original date of 2013 but we expect to hear that this figure has now been increased to 66% of the UK (around 16.5 million homes) although we don’t know if this is on an extended time scale or if it will still be within the original planned dates.
BT do not release their annual results until Thursday this week and and not commented on the speculation that this is what is actually happening, but it has been reported by a number of sources and so it is likely to be the news we expect to hear on Thursday.
BT’s fibre based broadband network for the majority of people on it will be done via FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) that will offer broadband speeds up to 40Mb with the chance for the speed to increase in the future. FTTC provides Fibre optic cable to the street side cabinet and then uses the existing copper cables to take the broadband form the cabinet to the premises. Fibre to the Premises is the ideal fibre network but the costs would be substantially more for this to be implemented.