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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October 20, 2010
BT Openreach are to launch a 110Mb fibre broadband from March 2011 as part of their Generic Ethernet Access Fibre To The Premises (GEA FTTP) products.
 The news of this 110Mb fibre broadband from BT is probably not that far linked to the fact that Virgin Media are to launch their own 100Mb fibre broadband by the end of this year. When you consider that BT had originally been planning on offering a 100Mb fibre broadband package to it’s new fibre broadband network anyway it would seem that upping this by just 10Mb more than Virgin Media could be done so they can advertise at offering the fastest fibre broadband in the country come next year.
A spokesman for BT said that:
“Communications providers advertising 100Mbps, that’s exactly what consumers are going to get. You’re going to get 100Mbps, it’s not an ‘up to’ service.“
However, this speed is not expected to be available 24 hours a day, in times where the network is flooded a prioritised 20Mb speed would be available per user.
The breakdown of wholesale prices for the 110Mb broadband are pretty much the same as they are for the 100Mb broadband from BT, so it would make sense that BT are probably just going to replace the 100Mb broadband with their 110Mb offering.
The wholesale prices from BT Openreach for the 110Mb fibre broadband are £21.54 per month (£258 per year) plus a £75+vat connection charge.
The major advantage that Virgin Media have currently over BT is the fact that they already have around half of the UK covered instead of a relatively small amount that BT have on their FTTH/P (Fibre to the Home/Premises). On the war of “fastest broadband” it is not to be forgotten that Virgin Media are already looking at technology to be able to offer broadband speeds up to 200Mb.
The trials of this new 110Mb fibre broadband form BT are underway in Highams Park in North London and Bradwell Abbey in Milton Keynes.
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October 1, 2010
Fibre broadband is set to cover Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly in a £132 million project announced by BT.
BT are investing in a £132 million project along with Cornwall Council and supported by European funding that will see 80-90% of Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly covered by fibre broadband with broadband speeds up to 100Mb by 2014.
It is expected that around half of the fibre optic network that will be deployed to homes and businesses will be connected with FTTP (Fibre To The Premises/Home) which can offer broadband speeds up to 100Mb. The rest will eb connected by Fibre To The Cabinet (FTTC) which can offer broadband speeds up to 40Mb and is the type of fibre broadband connection that is being installed around the rest of the country with the £2.5 billion investment BT are putting into their fibre optic network.
BT think that by councils partnering with them and funding being provided both by public and private money to fund the roll out of fibre then this id what is able to be achieved, with Cornwall likely to be one of the fastest broadband counties in the country and the world after the investment. BT are putting in £78.5 million with the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) putting in around £53.5 million.
Ed Vaizey the Communications Minister said:
“This project is very exciting news for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. It shows how the public and private sectors can work together to deliver local solutions to local problems. Households and businesses in this largely rural area can now look forward to having one of the best broadband connections in the world, thanks to Cornwall Council’s vision, European funding and BT’s investment and expertise. The Government wants the UK to have the best broadband network in Europe by 2015, so today’s announcement is a big step towards that goal.“
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August 13, 2010
With BT aiming to have 66% coverage of the UK with fibre optic broadband by 2015 many people who are yet to be moved onto the faster next generation broadband may be wondering if they are getting close to having fibre broadband services turned on.
BT do release lists of which towns and areas they are going to be covered and update this as and when new towns are put on it, however, just so you know what to look out for we have been out and grabbed you a picture of what you need to be looking for as the tell tale sign that you are getting close to receiving fibre broadband.
The picture below is of two BT street side cabinets. The smaller cabinet on the right is the old cabinet that the will probably be currently supplying your telephone and broadband services through. This is connected to the telephone exchange via copper wires.
The larger green cabinet on the left of the image is one of the new BT cabinets that will be supplied with fibre optic cable from the main telephone exchange. For most of us from here the broadband will then be delivered to us from the existing copper wires that currently supply us. This is the set up that the majority of the country will be receiving from BT, and is known as Fibre To The Cabinet (FTTC).
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May 14, 2010
We reported at the start of this week about BT extending the roll out of it’s fibre optic network to two-thirds of the UK up from the 40% it originally planned and this has been confirmed yesterday by BT as they had a press conference releasing their annual figures.
 The increased roll out has come with an extra £1 billion of funding being pumped into the fibre network, originally BT were going to spend £1.5 bn but yesterday said that this is now going to be £2.5 bn and should have the 66% coverage by 2015.
Last year (to the end of March 2010) BT made a £1bn profit, with is a huge increase on the previous year where they actually made a £244 million loss.
BT’s fibre network is mainly going to be FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) that will offer broadband speeds up to 40Mb, BT themselves will be offering customers fibre broadband on it’s service they have named BT Infinity or they will be other broadband providers who will use BT’s fibre network to offer their own fibre broadband services.
This news will no doubt be a blow to BT’s main rivals Virgin Media, who currently have 55% coverage of the UK with their own fibre broadband network where they offer a headline speed of 50Mb broadband. The increased rivalry between the two companies should hopefully be good news for consumers though as each company fights to win over customers, hopefully meaning cheaper fibre broadband for us.
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May 11, 2010
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.
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March 23, 2010
Ofcom is after faster roll-out of high speed next generation fibre broadband to the UK and are looking at making BT open up access to their network and also to their underground ducts and telephone poles for other rival fibre providers to install their own fibre networks.
 In return for allowing rival broadband providers such as Talk-Talk and Sky access to BT’s fibre lines BT would be able to set their own prices that they would charge for access so that they are able to make a fair return on their investment.
It is a similar way that Local Loop Unbundling has happened with the copper networks that BT already have, which allows rival providers in to basically take control of the line themselves.
Ofcom want competitors to have a virtual link to the new fibre that BT has installed which they are calling “Virtual Unbundling”.
Ofcom did surveys June 2008 and through 2009 of BT’s duct network and found that up to 50% of the ducts had spare room in them that would allow more ducts to be installed.
Ed Richards, the Chief Executive of Ofcom said:
“Super-fast broadband is starting to be a reality in the UK, with very significant advances in recent months in the speeds some providers are offering.
Ofcom’s proposed regulations provide a framework for continued investment, to deliver further roll-out, competition and innovation for consumers.”
We often hear of “Super-fast broadband” but quite often there is no yard-stick as such for us to say what this equates to, Ofcom have made a bit of a clarification of how they rank it in that Super-fast broadband uses fibre optic cable and speeds that are up to 10 times as fast as today’s levels. Working on today’s levels the majority of people are on up to 8Mb broadband services with the average broadband speed that is received being around the 4Mb mark (there have been various broadband speed test surveys done) so this would take the super-fast broadband speed to 40Mb if this is what Ofcom are working on. BT are currently installing their fibre network and are aiming to offer 40Mb broadband to 10 million home sin the UK by 2012.
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March 10, 2010
Fibre-Optic broadband access is growing across Europe as next generation broadband starts to take off.
A study done by IDATE on behalf of the Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) Council Europe showed that the rate of growth of Fibre-To-The-Home broadband went from 19% in June 2009 up to 29% by the end of December 2009.
Across Europe it is estimated that there is FTTH access available to 25 million homes and businesses with currently around 3.5 million taking subscriptions.
In Europe it was found that there was 249 FTTH projects taking place, with 136 of these being new initiatives that were launched since 2005.
The UK however does not show up on the tables for leading the way with FTTH, Norway top the charts with a coverage of 64.9% and Sweden in second spot with a FTTH coverage of 41.4% coverage.
It is countries in Western and Northern Europe that also lead the way in terms of subscriptions to FTTH services, with 67% of subscribers in these countries, Sweden, Italy, France, Norway, The Netherlands, Denmark and Germany.
The UK we hope will start to feature in the next year or two as fibre broadband deployment is starting to take off a bit more here now, even though we have Virgin Media who are a cable provider the study did not include them. BT are starting the roll out of their own fibre network (BT Infinity), with around 2.5 million premises having FTTH installed by 2012 although the majority however are having FTTC (Fibre-To-The-Cabinet) installed which does not offer as fast speeds as it uses copper wires to deliver the broadband from the cabinet to the premises. Virgin Media are also looking to offer 100Mb fibre broadband via their DOCSIS 3 network.
What is considered one of the main issues with next generation high speed broadband connections is getting people to sign up to them, so a similar process that was needed to get people to change from dial up internet to standard ADSL broadband.
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January 26, 2010
With the BT Infinity fibre broadband service launching this week it is no surprise that BT are trying to make claims about their service being better than Virgin Medias and Virgin Media making claims that their service is better than BTs fibre broadband.
 Virgin Media have been the UK’s fibre optic cable broadband supplier and have been the only ones able to push this service, that is until this week when BT officially launched BT Infinity which is their own fibre broadband service.
Virgin are not happy with claims from BT that choosing the BT Infinity service could save customer up to £7 per month compared to a Virgin Media fibre broadband service.
 Virgin Media have hit back saying that BT’s claims are not strictly true as they are comparing services which are not the same.
The Virgin XXL service that BT was comparing against offers broadband speeds up to 50MB and has Unlimited usage where as the BT service offers up to 40Mb and has a 20GB download limit. Another point is that BT Infinity customers would need to take a phone line out with BT where as no phone line is required with the Virgin Media service.
A Virgin Media spokesperson said:
“We’re not sure why people in the UK would want to wait for BT’s 40Mbps service which hasn’t launched yet, when they can already get Virgin Media’s great value 50Mbps service”
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