BT begins fibre broadband pilot

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 6 Jul 2009 at 16:47

BT has begun pilot tests of its fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) technology in London and Wales.

Muswell Hill in the capital and Whitchurch in Wales are the two sites BT has chosen to test the technology, which it says will reach 10 million premises by 2012.

Each of the two locations has more than 15,000 premises and 100 road-side cabinets. The trial involves installing a dedicated fibre broadband cabinet alongside the existing phone cabinets.

BT has already run a limited test of the FTTC technology with 50 of its own staff in Ipswich, and claims the results were very encouraging. The company claims trialists achieved download speeds of up to 50Mbits/sec, suggesting that the technology may go faster than the stated 40Mbits/sec maximum.

The company revealed last week that it plans to guarantee speeds of 15Mbits/sec, to fibre customers, treating anything slower as a fault on the line.

BT also said that it had accelerated its fibre rollout plans, and would now be connecting a million residential and business premises by March next year, with 1.5m switched on by next summer.