BT claims G.fast will bring UK 'ultrafast' broadband

BT’s CEO Gavin Patterson has announced the telco’s plans to upgrade its broadband network with a widespread deployment of G.fast technology, claiming this will take the UK from ‘superfast’ to ‘ultrafast’ broadband era.

According to the telco, G.fast will enable speeds of up to 500Mbps to most of the UK within a decade and up to about 200Mbps by 2020. It said as long as pilots are successful, it will begin the deployment in 2016/2017. So far tests have shown G.fast can deliver different speeds depending how close it is to the customer premises.

“BT is a world leader when it comes to fibre innovation and we are excited about the next stage in our story,” Patterson said. “We believe G.fast is the key to unlocking ultrafast speeds and we are prepared to upgrade large parts of our network should the pilots prove successful. That upgrade will depend however on their continuing to be a stable regulatory environment that supports investment.”

G.fast is deployed as part of the fibre-to-the distribution-point (FTTdp), and it combines aspects of fibre and DSL offering fibre-like speeds matched with the customer-installed DSL. It can be installed in street cabinets, and its speed varies according to the distance from the end-premises. The technology standard was approved by the International Telecommunications Union in December.

BT will begin piloting the scheme this summer in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, and Goshforth, New Castle, where around 4,000 businesses and homes will participate.

“The UK is ahead of its major European neighbours when it comes to broadband and we need to stay ahead as customer demands evolve. G.fast will allow us to do that by building on the investment we have made in fibre to date. It will transform the UK broadband landscape from superfast to ultrafast in the quickest possible timeframe.”

The pilots will build upon BT’s previous G.fast tests at its Adastral Park innovation centre in Suffolk. BT said it plans to implement G.fast at various points in the network, which will enable it to explore various roll-out options.

The telco also said it will start offering a premium fibre broadband service of up to 1Gbps ahead of the G.fast deployment, and claimed its current network expansion project will extend its fibre broadband coverage to 95% of UK premises.