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BT names six towns to win superfast broadband

Fibre exchanges heading to Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire, Hampshire, Shropshire and the Scottish Borders...
Written by Natasha Lomas, Contributor

Fibre exchanges heading to Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire, Hampshire, Shropshire and the Scottish Borders...

BT has named six exchanges that will be included in its £2.5bn fibre-broadband rollout after conducting a public vote to test demand for the superfast connectivity.

The six exchanges that will receive superfast broadband are Baschurch, Shropshire; Blewbury, Oxfordshire; Caxton, Cambridgeshire; Innerleithen, Scottish Borders; Madingley, Cambridgeshire; and Whitchurch, Hampshire.

BT names six Race to Infinity fibre-broadband winners - including Innerleithen, Scottish Borders

Innerleithen, Scottish Borders, one of six communities named as winner of BT's Race to Infinity fibre-broadband poll
(Photo credit: Hugh Simmons via Flickr.com under the following Creative Commons licence)

In October last year, the telco announced its Race to Infinity web poll, asking broadband users to vote for superfast broadband for their community.

The three-month poll concluded on 31 December, with the six poll winners set to get access to fibre by early 2012 at the latest. BT originally intended to name five winners but added a sixth after "six areas all achieved extremely high levels of votes."

Several areas just missed out, according to BT, including Marton in Warwickshire; Capel in Surrey; Burley in Wharfedale in Bradford; and Lindfield in West Sussex.

More than 360,000 votes were cast across the UK during the survey. The poll caused some controversy when it launched, as exchanges with fewer than 1,000 premises were automatically excluded from the competition.

BT has pledged to roll out superfast fibre-broadband access to two-thirds of the UK by 2015, putting speeds of up to 40Mbps - and even 100Mbps - within reach of fibre-enabled exchanges.

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