BT Openreach to conduct FTTP trials in existing service areas

Long the holdout in the Fiber to the Premises race, Openreach--BT's local access network division--announced this week that it will launch FTTP trials in its "brownfield" service areas in January. Openreach plans initially to target its Bradwell Abbey in Milton Keynes and Highams Park, London. During the trial, Openreach will conduct tests to deliver up to 100 Mbps bandwidth speeds to about 20,000 homes and businesses by March 2010. Built as an open access network, Openreach will make the network available to local competitive service providers on a wholesale basis.

This trial represents a larger effort by BT to deliver what it calls 'super-fast' broadband speeds to 10 million premises through a combination of FTTP and Fiber to the Cabinet (FTTC) technology. BT has set an ambitious timeline to make its fiber-enabled broadband services available to 1.5 million homes by next summer. Openreach is currently offering FTTP-based service in a 'greenfield' housing development in Ebbsfleet Valley, Kent. Customers living in that area are enjoying up to 100 Mbps speeds.  

Similar to U.S. based service providers such as AT&T and Qwest, BT Openreach's broadband deployment will take a hybrid FTTC and FTTP technology approach. FTTC, which will make up the majority of the OpenReach's broadband rollout, will deliver up to 40 Mbps downstream speeds with the potential to deliver 60 Mbps in future releases.

For more:
- see the release here
- Telecompaper has this article

Related articles
BT unveils aggressive Fiber-to-the-X timeline
BT Wholesale debuts new broadband wholesale service
Occam wants to make splash in European FTTP market
Middleburgh Telephone Company injects fiber into access network