February 3, 2012
BT are to offer full fibre as an “on-demand” service and bring “ultra-fast” fibre broadband to anywhere that BT has a fibre footprint in the UK from Spring 2013.
 BT have been trialing an “on demand” full FTTP (Fibre To The Premises) service in Cornwall. The successful trial in St Agnes, Cornwall, has seen additional fibre being run from a FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) enabled area to the premises of customers meaning that they then receive full FTTP and the availability of up to 300Mb broadband speeds (BT are due to increase their headline 110Mb fibre broadband package to 300Mb speeds).
BT are investing £2.5bn in rolling out it’s fibre network across the UK and hope to have coverage of 66% by the end of 2014, the majority of these connections will be via a FTTC and not the full FTTP. FTTC currently offers customers broadband speeds of up to 40Mb, although this is to be doubled to up to 80Mb this spring.
The new “on-demand FTTP” service is likely to be made available for customers either personal or business who require full fibre by Spring 2013 yet are in an area where BT have only installed their FTTC fibre service yet want the extra speeds available that a full fibre connection would offer.
Currently around 7 million premises in the UK are able to access fibre broadband over BT’s fibre network, with this figure likely to be 10 million by the end of 2012 and then two thirds of the country by the end of 2014.
Olivia Garfield, the Openreach Chief Executive, said:
“FTTP on demand is a significant development for Broadband Britain. Essentially, it could make our fastest speeds available wherever we deploy fibre. This will be welcome news for small businesses who may wish to benefit from the competitive advantage that such speeds provide.
We are also doubling the speed of our standard fibre broadband this Spring giving ISPs the chance to offer speeds of up to 80Mbps. This will ensure that residential customers have world class speeds for all their family’s needs.”
There are currently no indications as to the price it would be for BT to upgrade a premises to full fibre but we would envisage it wouldn’t be a cheap enough option at present to turn many residential customers to decide they need the extra speeds.
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December 9, 2011
90% of the UK should have fibre broadband connections in 5 to 6 years according to BT’s main man.
David Cameron visited BT’s Adastral Park research HQ near to Ipswich where they were told by BT’s Chief Executive, Ian Livingstone, that fibre optic broadband could be available to 90% of homes and businesses within 5 to 6 years.
BT are currently aiming to have two thirds of the country connected to its fibre network in just 3 years time (by the end of 2014). However, the final push will be a time consuming and expensive for BT hence why it could be up to 6 years before there is 90% coverage with fibre broadband.
BT are investing £2.5bn in its fibre network to upgrade from copper wires to fibre optic cable. The majority of connections people will receive will be FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) as apposed to full fibre to the premises (FTTP). FTTC has fibre optics being used from the main exchange to the streetside cabinets and then the standard copper cable to go from the cabinet to peoples premises, only a small number will receive full fibre to the cabinet and then fibre form the cabinet to their premises, although this offers far greater speeds it is also far more costly to do.
Other funding for fibre comes from the Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) scheme that sees around £530m from the government to help fund rural broadband schemes where it is not as financially viable for the likes of BT or Virgin Media to deploy their improved services.
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November 9, 2011
BT are managing to roll out fibre broadband even faster and save themselves money by the use of a new extra sharp super spade!
 The new spade has an extra sharp edge which makes it possible for it to cut through tarmac and remove blockages during the fibre installation process. Previously a separate civil engineering team would have been required to come to dig up pathways.
Having the new spade has meant that fibre installations can now be done in just two days rather than a week thus saving time and speeding up the fibre roll out process and also saving money.
There are a few other innovations that BT are also using to help speed up fibre broadband deployment which includes the trialing of a polymer based plinth for the base of the street side cabinets. Previously the cabinets were secured down with concrete in the bottom, this either required wet cement to be poured in which takes time to set or if pre-cast concrete was used it required extra workers and machinery to lift and move the concrete block. The new Polymer plinths are pre-formed and light that are suitable for all weather conditions, this alone could cut the deployment time from 7 days to just a couple of hours!
 They have also worked on the power supply infrastructure and have new ways where meters don’t need to be installed, this alone BT claim reduces deployment by 2 weeks!
Trefor Davis, the Chief Technology Officer at Timico, said:
“Well actually whilst each of these innovations may seem trivial what they collectively do is send out a signal that BT is trying to do something about the aspect of it’s business that is often criticised as being one of the barriers to cost effective fibre (FTTC & FTTP) rollout and that is the cost of digging trenches.“
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October 31, 2011
BT’s roll out of fibre broadband is set to be completed a year ahead of schedule as they take on a further 520 engineers to accelerate the roll out.
 BT had originally planned on having two thirds of the UK covered with fibre optic broadband by 2015, but they are taking on all these new engineers, most which are ex-armed forces, to help with the fibre deployment and will mean that BT hope to have this target completed by the end of 2014, a year ahead of schedule.
BT are investing £2.5bn into their fibre network, the majority of which is done as FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) for most of the country. Although FTTC is not classed as full fibre as it only has the fibre optic cable going form the exchange to the street-side cabinet and then requires standard copper wires to take it the remaining distance to the premises it does represent a huge increase in broadband speeds over what is available by standard broadband lines which are based on copper all the way. Currently the FTTC solution offers broadband speeds up to 40Mb, although this is set to double by next spring along with the headline speed for the full fibre (FTTH) being increased to a huge 300Mb.
Due to their speeded up roll out it will also see BT bringing forward £300 million of the investment forward to help fund the progress.
Currently around 6 million premises has fibre optic broadband available to them, with this figure likely to reach 10 million in 2012 and then to hit the two thirds of UK premises by 2014.
Only a few days ago the UK were ranked in 25th position on global broadband speeds based on the results from “Akamai’s State of the Internet report”, it is news of this accelerated rollout which should hopefully see the UK quickly rise of the world rankings, especially as the UK government has aims to have the best super fast broadband network in Europe by 2015.
BT markets their own fibre broadband solution as BT Infinity.
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October 5, 2011
BT Broadband are to offer broadband speeds up to 300Mb via it’s FTTP (Fibre To The Premises/Home) and double the speeds of it’s FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) to around 80Mb during 2012.
BT Openreach have announced today the speed increases that they are planning to roll out it the BT Fibre broadband network which will see the full fibre broadband connections that are available to some see the launch speeds of 110Mb have their available speeds upped to a whopping 300Mb from Spring 2012. Only a relatively small number of premises are connected via the full Fibre broadband offering from BT to be able to have these broadband speeds as a reality, however, the up to 300Mb broadband speeds do represent broadband speeds 3 times faster than the headline 100Mb broadband that Virgin Media currently offer. It would be little surprise though to see or hear of plans from Virgin media to also increase their headline speeds. We already know that they have run trials that allows them to offer speeds of up to 1.5Gb using the same infrastructure that they have already in place (Virgin’s 1.5Gb broadband trial a success).
On top of this BT also announced that they will be able to double the fibre broadband speeds that the majority of the country will receive via their FTTC deployment from 40Mb to 80Mb.
BT are investing £2.5bn in rolling out fibre broadband across the UK, the majority of which is via Fibre To The Cabinet which then requires the standard copper cables from the streetside cabinet to take broadband the remaining distance, by the end of 2015 they hope to have fibre broadband available to around two thirds of the country.
Liv Garfield, the chief executive of BT Openreach, said:
“Today is a significant step in the UK’s broadband journey. These developments will transform broadband speeds across the country and propel the UK up the broadband league tables.
All our fibre products are fit for the future and these developments show that to be the case. As always, we want to go further and faster and so our journey doesn’t end here. We can turn up the dial should there be demand and so we can look to the future with confidence.
No-one is keener than us to extend these super-fast speeds to rural areas and so we will be bidding for public funds to help extend these services even further. The challenge is a tough one but by working with the public sector it is within our reach.”
BT sell their fibre broadband to customers via BT Infinity.
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June 15, 2011
BT’s (www.bt.com) fibre broadband network is to pass 5 million homes by the end of this month and BT have announced a further 66 exchanges that are set to be enabled with FTTC that will cover a further 1 million homes.
BT are undergoing a huge £2.5bn fibre broadband roll-out across the country and have already got it installed in around 5 million UK homes with the roll out not set to slow down. There are already plenty of other exchanges that are earmarked ready for upgrading to fibre and BT have released the names of 66 new exchanges that will also be included. Some of these new exchanges will be upgraded by the end of this year but most will be being done during 2012.
By the end of the roll out BT are aiming to have covered two thirds of UK homes with fibre by 2015, the majority are to be connected via FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) which currently offers broadband speeds up to 40Mb although speeds in future should be able to be increased.
Some other interesting facts about BT’s £2.5bn fibre investment are that they are currently passing around 80,000 new premises per week. By the end of the programme they will have installed 30,000 cabinets, connecting 200,000 distribution points and enabled over 1,000 exchanges which will also mean they will need to lay over 50,000km of fibre!
Those wanting to sign up for fibre broadband can do so with BT at BT Infinity (www.bt.com).
The list of the new exchanges are:
INVERKEITHING
ABERDEEN ASHGROVE
ABERDEEN DENBURN
NAIRN
CUMBERNAULD
GLASGOW SCOTSTOUN
SELLY OAK
SUTTON COLDFIELD
BURTON UPON TRENT
LANGLEY MILL
BRISTOL SOUTH
STROUD
ABERDARE
STAFFORD
EUSTON
HOLBORN
KINGS CROSS
EDGBASTON
ERDINGTON
TILE HILL
NORWICH
DERBY
WILLOWCROFT
MORECAMBE
CHILDWALL
CRESSINGTON PARK
SEFTON PARK
STONEYCROFT
WATERLOO
BROUGHTON, GREATER MANCHESTER
DROYLSDEN
RADCLIFFE
WOODLEY, GREATER MANCHESTER
BRIDLINGTON
BRIGHOUSE
CLECKHEATON
HAREHILLS
HORSFORTH
MELROSEGATE
SKIPTON
FOLKESTONE
HASTINGS
WESTGATE
NEWCASTLE WEST
EASTBOURNE
BRIGHTON KEMPTOWN
ADWICK LE STREET
ARMTHORPE
DONCASTER
DONCASTER NORTH
GREENHILL
INTAKE
LINCOLN
ROSSINGTON
WOODSEATS
WORKSOP
COWLEY
EASTON
BRISTOL REDCLIFFE
BOURNEMOUTH
SOUTHBOURNE
WINTON
WESTBOURNE
LEEK
BRIDGWATER
WELLINGTON
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May 9, 2011
BT are trying to recruit 200 ex-armed forces personnel to help with the roll out of their next generation fibre broadband network.
BT Openreach has been working with the Career Transition Partnership (CTP) who offer training, help and employment support for those who are leaving the armed forces. Due to the skills of many armed service personnel BT Openreach feel that they will be able to fulfill many job roles that BT need to help facilitate their new high speed network rollout. With a fast-track programme in place, many of the 200 new recruits will be able to start work by the end of May and help BT Openreach with their target of reaching two thirds of the UK with it’s fibre network by 2015.
The CEO of Openreach, Olivia Garfield, said:
“It’s fantastic that we’ve been able to recruit so many ex-armed services personnel. These people have served their country well and so deserve the chance of full-time employment with a generous reward package. They are highly skilled, motivated and disciplined and have experience of complex engineering tasks in challenging environments.
Our “fast-track” recruitment programme should see the majority of them join us by the end of May and given their experience, we will be able to train them up quickly and get them straight out where we need them.”
The Managing Director of the CTP, David Duffy, said:
“We have had an amazing success rate with this project, and have received tremendous feedback about the high calibre of the Service leavers who have applied for the roles on offer.
The CTP offers a no cost recruitment solution, supporting organisations with their workforce strategy by understanding their recruitment needs and matching the transferable skills of Service leavers. To date, Openreach have carried out 202 interviews specifically for Service leavers with 181 subsequently being offered positions. This converts to a 90% success rate at interview and reflects the highly sought after skill-sets, abilities and attitude of those leaving the Armed Forces.“
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January 13, 2011
41 market towns across the UK have been added to BT’s list of places that they will roll out their next generation fibre broadband to with broadband speeds up to 40Mb.
 This extra 41 market towns will supply around 300,000 businesses and consumers with the fibre broadband which will be available to them from Spring 2012.
These market towns are on top of the 785 exchanges that BT has already planned that will receive fibre broadband under it’s £2.5 billion fibre broadband roll out scheme over the next few years. They represent around 8 million premises in total which is around half of the total that BT are aiming to have the fibre network rolled out to which when complete should cover around 66% of UK premises.
The majority of BT’s fibre broadband roll-out (BT Infinity) is using FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) which will offer broadband download speeds of up to 40Mb and upload speeds of up to 10Mb. In the future this could be increased to download speeds of 60Mb and upload speeds of 15Mb. FTTC uses fibre optics to deliver the broadband to the street-side cabinet and form there the standard copper wire will be used to transfer the signal the rest of the distance to the house.
A few places will receive full FTTH/P (Fibre To The Home/Premises) where along with the fibre optic cable taking the broadband to the cabinet there will also be a fibre optic cable taking the data the distance form the exchange to the premises too and will mean broadband speeds up to 100Mb.
The 41 market towns added to the list are as follow:
Alfreton
Baldock
Bathgate
Billinge
Bishop auckland
Blandford
Dalkeith
Dartmouth
Dereham
Devizes
Dorking
Edinburgh musselburgh
Epping
Faversham
Filey
Frinton- on-sea
Great dunmow
Halstead
Hungerford
Kidlington
Knutsford
Mirfield
Montrose
Morpeth
Nantwich
Newmarket
Oswestry
Penrith
Pontycymmer
Rainford
Ripley
Royston, south yorkshire
Sandwich
Sheerness
Sheringham
Stocksbridge
Stourport
Wallingford
Wendover
Westbury
Wimborne
We currently have a poll running on if you are happy with your broadband speed, the poll can be found on our broadband speed test page.
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January 4, 2011
BT’s “Race To Infinity” competition came to a close on new years eve and finally we can see which of the 6 lucky towns received the most votes to be selected for an upgrade to fibre optic broadband.
 The competition was originally only going to have 5 selected areas but BT have added an extra one to the list due to the fact each of the selected areas received extremely high levels of votes. All the towns will have their local network upgraded to fibre by early 2012.
In total there was more than 360,000 votes cast across the UK.
The 6 winning tows were:
- Baschurch, Shropshire
- Blewbury, Oxfordshire
- Caxton, Cambridgeshire
- Innerleithen, Scottish Borders
- Madingley, Cambridgeshire
- Whitchurch, Hampshire
Those areas that did not win though may have at least put their area on the map for BT to consider in the future by showing a demand for the BT Infinity network to be deployed there. Some of the areas this may include are Marton in Warwickshire, Capel in Surrey, Burley in Wharfedale in Bradford and Lindfield in West Sussex. All these areas just missed out getting into the top 6
The BT Infinity network will offer users a FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) fibre broadband connection which will offer download speeds of up to 40Mb and upload speeds up to 10Mb.
Chris Whatmore who was one of the campaign co-ordinators for the Blewbury exchange said:
“Everyone in our five local villages deserves a pat on the back. The highlights for me have been working with some great people, getting a vote from our oldest resident, who’s 101, and leaping into the number one position the moment we hit 1,000 votes.
Quite a few of us were involved in a previous broadband campaign, so we were familiar with the issues and had a number of ready-made contacts who we knew would be supportive. It seemed a natural thing for this core team to start the ball rolling. With proper, future-proof broadband, Blewbury can attract people or businesses that need and depend on high-speed data connectivity.”
BT are investing £2.5 billion in their fibre optic network over the next few years and plans on having it available to two thirds of the UK by 2015.
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December 15, 2010
BT’s Race To Infinity campaign has seen the town of Innerleithen which is on the Scottish borders move into 4th place on the nationwide poll for areas to receive fibre optic broadband from BT.
The BT “Race To Infinity” campaign is a national poll that gives towns across the country the chance to vote for their town to have the BT fibre optic network installed there by early 2012. The campaign is free for residents to vote for their area with the 31st December the last chance for people to cast their vote. A minimum of 1,000 votes for a town are required to be eligible for the “competition” with BT choosing the top 5 places with the most votes to extend their fibre network to.
Innerleithen currently nearly 75% of the community having registered their vote for having the fibre optic network to be deployed there.
The current standings are as follows:
- Caxton, Cambridgeshire
1,803 votes
89.48%
- Blewbury, Oxfordshire
1,106 votes
89.48% of residents
- Madingley, Cambridgeshire
1,729 votes
81.1% of residents
- Innerleithen, Scottish Borders
1,465 votes
74.9% of residents
- Casteton, Newport
1,160 votes
73.09% of residents
The “Race To Infinity” campaign was run to bring fibre to more rural areas that were not on BT’s initial plans to deploy fibre to. The poll will help BT plot areas that show great interest in fibre optic broadband and where it may not have originally been considered commercially viable originally this could change BT’s view.
For the most of the country BT will be deploying FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) which will offer fibre broadband speeds up to 40Mb.
To view the map or to register a vote for your area (if you aren’t in an area that BT is already planning on deploying to) then visit www.racetoinfinity.bt.com and register by December 31st.
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