BT plans could improve high speed broadband coverage in rural areas

It has been announced that the communications giant BT is planning a trial that could make a huge difference to the availability of superfast broadband in rural parts of the UK.

It seems that the battle over the digital divide in the UK has been going on forever. With so many people now using broadband services as part of their everyday lives increasing concerns have been raised over how those living and working in rural parts of the UK are suffering because they do not have anywhere near the same level of access to adequate broadband as those in urban parts of the UK.

However, it has been announced recently that the communications giant BT is looking to conduct a trial that could make it easier to provide access to superfast broadband services in rural parts of the country. BT Openreach is said to be planning a project that will test the effectiveness of fibre only telephone exchanges in rural areas.

The company has already spent the last year upgrading its copper exchanges so that fibre can be supported, which will provide consumers and businesses in the UK to enjoy far greater speeds. This project would see one rural exchange being fitted with just fibre-to-the-premises and ethernet fibre network technologies. By doing this BT can look at the possibility of getting rid of copper broadband altogether and focusing on fibre based services.

BT will be using the trial to work out how much it will cost to use fibre broadband exchanges exclusively without the need for copper and also wants to determine whether there are any other barriers that could hamper development.