BT Openreach (NYSE: BT) on Thursday announced that it will begin a technical trial of its 220/20 Mbps Generic Ethernet Access (GEA) Fiber to the Premises (FTTP) service in four of its telephone exchange areas.
Set to run throughout February, the four trial areas include Bradwell Abbey, Chester South, Exeter and York.
After it completes the trial, Openreach will conduct a pilot from March till the end of May, expanding the service area for the 220/20 Mbps product to the rest of its GEA-FTTP footprint throughout the UK.
Although customers won't have to pay for product rental during the technical trial and pilots, they will have to pay for connection, managed installations, missed appointments and other services.
BT will reveal pricing for the 220/20 Mbps product right before it formally launches the product, which will be this summer.
It has been a busy time for BT and its FTTx initiative.
In December, the telco unveiled plans to reduce wholesale prices for its 330 Mbps FTTP service by 37 percent.
Earlier in September, it announced plans to extend its hybrid fiber/copper Fiber to the Cabinet (FTTC) service to an additional 163 telephone exchange areas in 2013 and then hire an additional 250 engineers, particularly "Armed Forces leavers," or those about the leave the military, for its fiber broadband workforce.
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