BT plans for super fast broadband are a good start but more must be done

Recently announced plans by BT to move the dates for its forthcoming super-fast broadband rollout have been met with praise from the West Midlands Business Council.

The telecoms provider has, however, been urged to do even more by the Business Council. Moves to improve broadband services in the area would offer huge benefits to the local economy said the chairman of the task and finish group on next generation broadband for the city region, Glyn Pitchford.

Mr Pitchford said “It is a good start but we want to see it extended further.”

This latest broadband rollout plan would provide benefits to over 110 000 business and households in the West Midlands region said BT. Of the many locations throughout the UK to be upgraded next year there will be eight exchanges in the West Midlands region which are Walsall, Wednesbury, Great Barr, Northern (Soho, Birmingham), Fallings Park, Nuneaton and Tettenhall and Leamore.

The northern end of Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter and up through Bloxwich and Walsall to the north Black Country is the arc that will be covered by the broadband rollout plan.

Early summer in 2010 is the estimated date that 1.5 million homes and businesses will be receiving the new super-fast broadband service following the speeding up of plans by BT.

The speed at which the broadband upgrade will be deployed has now doubled and will see as many as a million household getting the new service by March 2010.

A total of £1.5 billion will be spent on this project according to BT and the current plan is the first part of a long-term effort to provide super-fast broadband services to 10 million homes and businesses, or 40 percent of the UK by 2012.

Source – www.birminghampost.net