BT announces superfast fibre broadband for Scotland

BT Broadband has been extremely active in recent months when it came to fibre deployment. The broadband giant is one of the firms that has signed on to aid in the implementation of the government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) project. The goals of the program were to provide universal broadband access and improve the current networks in the UK. Specifically, all households and businesses in the UK should have broadband speeds of at least 2Mbps.

BDUK also envisioned that at least ninety percent of users will be able to have access to next-generation broadband connections by 2015. Aside from that, the government hoped to even out the playing field in the industry as well.

BT was in the headlines when several firms dropped out from BDUK procurements, citing issues that they had against the broadband giant as they did so. Rival Geo Networks was one such network that has pulled out. Geo chief Chris Smedley revealed that it was partly due to BT placing unreasonable restrictions on access to its ducts and poles. Smedley said: “Whilst pricing may have reduced for the current PIA product (still not far enough in our view), the real issue is that it can only be used for providing the final drop from local exchange to a residential broadband consumer’s house.”

You could say that BT Broadband is the firm that is left standing as many of its competitors have since dropped out. And the firm has made another huge statement by announcing its biggest-ever fibre broadband project in Scotland. The entire project will have a budget of £2.5 billion. In the course of implementing it, 34 exchange areas in Scotland will be upgraded.

Brendan Dick, BT’s Scotland Director, said: “It marks a major investment in infrastructure, which will give the country a tremendous boost. Next-generation broadband is essential for our nation’s economic growth, so it’s brilliant to be ending 2011 on such a high note.”

The announcement of the investment was also welcomed warmly by the Scottish government. Infrastructure and Capital Investment Secretary Alex Neil stated: “We have set out our ambition for all of Scotland to have access to next-generation broadband by 2020, with significant progress to be made by 2015. It is an important part of the Scottish government’s economic strategy.”

Source – BBC