BT to extend ADSL2+ footprint to 90% of UK homes

UK telco BT has indicated that it plans to significantly extend the footprint of its ADSL2+ network to around 90 pe cent of UK homes (or 22.5 million premises) by spring 2013, delivering speeds of up to 20Mbps.

The company had previously stated that it planned to deliver ADSL2+ services to around 80 per cent of UK homes, or around 20 million premises.

Exchanges serving more than 17.6 million premises are already enabled, and the new expansion plans mean that an additional 2.5 million premises will have access to these faster speeds, beyond those already announced.

Out of the 800 exchanges to benefit from these new expansion plans, over half are located in rural areas, serving more than 900,000 premises.

BT has already committed itself to offering fibre-based broadband services to two thirds of UK premises by the end of 2015, using a mix of Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) and Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) technology, with more than 5mn premises already having access to FTTC services.

The company announced earlier this week that it added 71,000 customers for its superfast broadband service ‘BT Infinity’ in the second quarter of this year, bringing the total to over 200,000.