BT (NYSE: BT) has put out its list of the 41 towns of the next phase of its FTTX service roll out, bringing the service to about 300,000 businesses and residential customers broadband speeds of up to 40 Mbps.
Set to be completed by Spring 2012, BT will spend up to £2.5 billion (US$3.96 billion) to bring fiber-based broadband via its Fiber to the Curb (FTTC) network configuration.
The drive of this latest deployment initiative, as explained by Steve Robertson, CEO of Openreach, is "to extend the fiber footprint and the benefits of the technology brings to more rural areas."
Hoping to get the best return on its investment, the latest FTTX deployment plan will center on densely populated areas of its rural telephone exchanges.
Given the financial and technical issues that come with deploying FTTX, it's likely that while BT will be able reach a big portion of residential and business customer locations, there inevitably will be some spots it just won't be able to reach right away. However, BT said it will hold discussions with local council representatives to find out how it can extend the reach of the network service to those premises that will be excluded from the initial build out.
For more:
- see the release
Related articles:
BT names 6 winners of its FTTX broadband contest
BT issues survey to gauge fiber broadband interest
BT plunks down another $1.5 billion on FTTX network
BT Wholesale reaches five million 21CN user mark
BT is fulfilling its Fiber to the X dreams