BT changes up a gear for fibre rollout

UK operator BT is planning to increase the rate at which it rolls out its superfast fibre-based broadband network across the country.

The company has confirmed that an additional 66 exchanges across the country are to be upgraded for the delivery of fibre-based broadband services between now and the end of next year, affecting around one million homes.

The telco is already on target to pass five million premises with fibre-based broadband by the end of this month (June 2011), and expects to pass ten million premises in 2012 and two-thirds of UK premises by the end of 2015.

Its fibre deployment programme has a budget of £2.5bn ($4.09bn) and involves the rollout of a mixture of Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) and Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) connections.

BT has also indicated that it is trialling a new type of technology on the Isle of Bute in Scotland that enables the delivery of broadband services using the so-called “white space” in the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) TV spectrum. The project is being conducted in partnership with the University of Strathclyde, BBC Research and Development, Steepest Ascent, Berg Design and Netpropagate.

Earlier this week, UK startup Neul launched a new wireless standard for use in the same white space, focused on M2M applications.