BT Openreach adds 98 locations to its last mile fiber network

BT's (NYSE: BT) Openreach division is targeting an additional 98 telephone exchange areas across the UK to deliver its fiber-based broadband services.

Set to go live late next year, BT said this latest initiative will augment its £2.5 billion ($3.9 billion) fiber rollout plans by bringing the services to almost 800,000 homes and businesses.

Leveraging a mix of Fiber to the Cabinet (FTTC) and Fiber to the Premises (FTTP) technologies, Openreach will sell the service to BT Retail and other competitors such as TalkTalk (LSE: TALK) on a wholesale basis.

With the FTTC implementation, BT can deliver up to 80/20 Mbps speeds, while with FTTP it can offer 110 Mbps download speeds with plans underway to offer a 330 Mbps tier.

"Today's announcement brings us another important step closer towards our goal of providing this service to two-thirds of the UK by the end of 2014," said Mike Galvin, Openreach's managing director of network investment, in a company release. "We are keen to go beyond this with the help of BDUK funding and further engagement with local government and communities."

In April, BT began building out its first government-backed FTTX network under the Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) program in Lancashire.

For more:
- see the release

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