Good news for residents of Muswell Hill, London and Whitchurch, South Glamorgan today as BT has announced that the two exchanges will be used as pilot sites for fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) broadband in 2009.
Openreach, BT's local access network division, expects the trials to begin in summer 2009, and states that up to 15,000 customer premises could be involved in each area.
David Campbell, Openreach’s director of next generation access said:
"We are delighted to announce Whitchurch, South Glamorgan and Muswell Hill exchanges as the first sites chosen to pilot our fibre to the cabinet product. Services in these areas will be available to all UK communication providers on a wholesale basis. The sites were chosen in consultation with communications providers and took into account feedback from Regional Development Agencies, Devolved Authorities and similar organisations."
"It was also necessary to take into account current network topology and our ability to run testing procedures in the chosen areas. We have a good mix of areas, allowing us to test our products in both urban and semi-rural environments. These two sites were chosen from a shortlist and we expect to announce detailed plans for the initial market deployment of the Openreach product in early 2010, again following consultation with all interested parties."
The FTTC service is expected to bring speeds of up to 40Mbp/s to users in the chosen areas, and Muswell Hill and Whitchurch will join Foxhall, Suffolk - a third exchange on course for an FTTC pilot in early 2009.
Earlier this year, BT successfully trialled the more expensive fibre to the premises (FTTP) service at Ebbsfleet Valley in Kent, and later announced plans to bring fibre-optic services to ten-million homes by 2012.
