BT (NYSE: BT) is so bullish on fiber-based broadband that it plans to spend $82.5 million to make the service available to 400,000 additional premises in more than 30 cities over the next three years.
This builds on the progress it has made to invest $4.9 billion on fiber-based broadband, with its open access fiber network already passing over 18 million premises.
The telco's latest investment plan will focus on three goals: enabling city cabinets with fiber-based broadband that were not part of its original commercial plans due to technical challenges or local planning restrictions; deploying fiber to serve multi-dwelling units such as apartment complexes; and laying additional fiber, including Fiber to the Premises (FTTP) technology in Greenfield sites in cities.
Overall, BT continues to make progress with selling fiber-based broadband.
During its second quarter, BT added 195,000 retail fiber broadband customers, bringing its total to about 1.7 million connections. Likewise, its Openreach division reported that it added 316,000 net fiber connections, up 70 percent.
BT's efforts are also helping to drive up the availability of fiber-based broadband. According to Ofcom's October 2013 Infrastructure Report, the availability of fiber-based broadband in the UK is at 73 percent.
Complementing BT's work is the Broadband Delivery UK program, which receives financial support from both central and local government. That program will extend fiber-based broadband coverage to around 90 percent by late 2015 or early 2016.
For more:
- see the release
Related articles:
BT, Alcatel-Lucent push 1.4 Tbps over existing fiber during trial
BT taps HSBC exec Joe Garner as CEO of Openreach
BT conducts G.fast trial with Huawei on existing copper lines
BT adds 197,000 retail fiber broadband customers in fiscal Q1