BT continues rolling out broadband ahead of schedule

Upgrades to UK broadband networks is on the fast track as BT Broadband continues to deploy fibre ahead of schedule. BT is one of the providers that is participating in the government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) project. The goals of the program are to provide universal broadband with speeds of at least 2Mbps in the whole of Britain. BDUK is also pushing for at least ninety percent of users to have next-generation broadband access by 2015.

BT has been extremely busy this year with the announcement of their new Fibre-to-the-Premises service. Fibre deployment began soon thereafter, with the broadband giant initially announcing that it would be completed by 2015. The total investment of the project was revealed to be over £2.5 billion. BT has since announced that their operations were running ahead of schedule and that the project would be completed a full year ahead by 2014.

BT is still moving at full speed with their deployment. Now they have revealed that more than half of the population of the UK will be able to enjoy superfast broadband speeds by next year. BT is unveiling the latest series of telephone exchanges that have been upgraded already. The firm is also pushing to make its Infinity services available in rural areas as well.

BT chief executive Ian Livingston met with Prime Minister David Cameron and the Cabinet to talk about the provider’s project. BT’s upgrades will ensure that at least 90 percent of the population will be able to access speeds of 25Mbps and above.

Rural areas are also set to benefit largely from the deployment. It has been reported that the number of people who will not be able to use the Internet effectively will drop to just one in every fifty users.

A total of 178 exchanges have been upgraded so far. Around 34 of these are located in Scotland, 21 in the East Midlands and 19 in Yorkshire. BT Broadband has committed to covering two-thirds of the entire UK by the completion of the project.

In the upgrades areas, BT will be acting as a wholesaler, with other providers purchasing access from them to provide better services to their own subscribers. A staunch competitor of BT, Virgin Media, has also been hard at work with upgrading their own networks.

Source – The Telegraph