BT Shows First Fiber-Optic Broadband Rollout Plans

MJackson writes "BT has revealed new details about the roll-out of its £1.5bn programme to deploy super fast fibre optic broadband to as many as 10 million UK homes (40%) by 2012. Scotland will become one of the first places to benefit from next-generation broadband services, with more than 34,000 homes and businesses in Edinburgh and Glasgow receiving speeds of up to 40Mbps and potentially 60Mbps from early next year (2010). Overall, BT Openreach, which is responsible for ensuring that all rival operators have equality of access to BT's local network, aims to deploy Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) based next generation broadband services next summer (2010) to 500,000 homes and businesses in the UK."

Comments

Anonymous Coward

[Anonymous Coward]

Bah... Been there, done that...
Optical broadband is already rolled out in Norway, the "entry level" line is 10/10mb (yes, symetric), very stable and high quality with separate extra bandwith for Ip TV.

Now, if the rest of the world follows, internet content will only get heavier and the demand for even more bandwith will grow :-(

Guess we'll have to double the bandwith every 18 month in the future?

Re:Anonymous Coward

[Anonymous Coward]

That's how Verizon has been laying fiber in the US. They have huge crews that work along the roadside, even in cities, digging holes and drilling tunnels for conduit. They can go under roads, driveways and sidewalks. I'm sure it is expensive, but it hasn't stopped them.

And I'm a very happy fios customer now, with a 20Mb/20Mb connection.

Not too bad... how about 1,000 MBps?

[wvmarle]

Available NOW, not in a few years?

Hong Kong has it. 30 Mbit (down, 10 Mbit up) for cheap (about USD 33 per month) and up to 1,000 Mbit for those with more money to waste (about USD 280 per month). This is for residential use, by the way. Available in residential buildings.

Admittedly not available everywhere (like for me: I only can get traditional ADSL but then I'm living in a village so no surprise there), still this is nothing new. Good for the UK that they are catching up with their former colony.

Re:Not too bad... how about 1,000 MBps?

[Rakshasa Taisab]

In Japan... Living in what would be consider the worst part of the greater tokyo area, and on 100/100 optical connection.

Re:Not too bad... how about 1,000 MBps?

[Bloater]

We already have fiber broadband over large parts of the UK. I had it installed nearly two years ago by Virgin Media.

Re:FTTC? Next gen? Another UK FAIL!

[SwedishPenguin]

Isn't FTTH Fiber to the home? How is that last gen? And what would be the current gen? I mean i suppose technically I could connect to my fiber modem by fiber instead of TP-cable, but my connection is capped at 100 Mbps anyway..

I wouldn't hold your breath

[FridgeFreezer]

Cast your mind back to 2004 when BT announced they would roll out 21CN (ADSL2, VoIP, etc. and replacing the entire UK core network with IP), they were due to be rolling over more than 10,000 customers per day by now onto this new network, and be finished in plenty of time for everyone to watch the 2012 Olympics in HD video-over-broadband.

Guess how many they've done so far...

Of course, if you read their website now the original goalposts have been burned and some new ones installed much further apart and in a different place on the pitch: http://www.btplc.com/21CN/Theroadto21CN/Keymilestones/Keymilestones.htm

Re:I wouldn't hold your breath

[c_g_hills]

I especially like this little tidbit from near the end:-

BT believes it is the only operator in the world to commit to a planned national rollout of a next generation network

I wonder what planet they are living on - maybe the same one as Sol Trujillo of former Telstra infamy.

Re:Too little...

[Computershack]

Dumbass. It's your ISP that implemets the caps and throttling, not BT Openreach. They merely provide the connectivity from the POP to the customer.