BT Openreach to conduct all-fiber last mile trial in Deddington, UK

BT Openreach (NYSE: BT) has picked rural Deddington in Oxfordshire, UK as the site for its Fibre-Only Exchange (FOX) pilot, an initiative that replaces all existing copper with fiber.

Construction on FOX will begin this spring with services slated to be available for residents and businesses in Deddington, a community of 2,200 people served by 1,400 phone lines, in 2013.  

When the buildout is complete, customers will be able to get download speeds "of between up to 40 Mbps and up to 300 Mbps," speeds that are significantly faster than the current 8 Mbps villagers can get today.  

BT Openreach said that the Deddington rural exchange "is the ideal size for the pilot" to help it understand how it could replace an existing last mile copper network completely with fiber. Transitioning the traditional copper-based services to fiber will be conducted over a two-year period.

"Fresh advances in technology are pushing the boundaries for new services on an almost daily basis," said Sean Williams, BT's Strategy Director, in a release. "This is an important pilot which will help the industry better understand the opportunities arising from a fibre-only world in which traditional copper will be replaced by the super-fast capabilities of fibre-optic cable."

Having been in discussions with members of the telecom industry to develop the technical specifications of the program, the service provider wants to take a collaborative approach in helping its wholesale competitive carrier customers make the transition as smooth and beneficial as possible for their customers.

For more:
- see the release
- ISP Review has this article

Special report: Wireline in the fourth quarter 2011

Related articles:
BT Openreach to offer 80 Mbps FTTC download speeds
BT Wholesale serves up enhanced Global IP Exchange service
BT conducts on-demand FTTP trial in Cornwall
BT targets MDUs in its latest FTTP trial