BT superfast broadband: 41 market towns to get fibre
Bevy of market towns to get FTTC - did you make it onto the list?
BT has named 41 market towns around the UK that will get fibre broadband access as part of its £2.5bn next-generation broadband rollout.
All the listed market towns will now be included in BT's fibre rollout and are set to get access to up to 40Mbps broadband via fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) technology by spring next year.
Towns on the list include Dorking in Surrey, Filey in North Yorkshire and Oswestry in the West Midlands. The vast majority of the market towns are located in England, with only one town in Wales - Pontycymmer - and three in Scotland - Bathgate, Dalkeith and Edinburgh Musselburgh. (Click here to see the full list of towns.)
Filey in North Yorkshire is one of 41 market towns set for a broadband speed boost
(Photo credit: johncooke via Flickr.com under the following Creative Commons licence)
The towns join the 785 exchange locations across the country BT has already revealed will be getting fibre under its rollout plan to date. BT also recently named six exchanges to get fibre after winning a web poll conducted by the telco.
BT defines market towns as having less than 10,000 premises and where the market town falls largely within a single exchange area. Market towns were previously excluded from BT's superfast broadband rollout on economic grounds owing to BT's policy of enabling all premises in an exchange area. The telco said it has now adapted this model to allow partial fibre rollouts within an exchange area so it can enable just the most densely populated parts of the exchange.
This means not all premises in the named towns should expect to get FTTC access.
BT said it is likely that a minority of premises in the 41 market towns will not initially be able to receive superfast broadband access "due to a combination of technical and economic reasons" - such as distance from the exchange, and the costs associated with hooking up premises in areas of low population density.
The telco is open to talks with local authorities to see if ways can be found to bring fibre to the excluded few, a BT spokesman added.
The telco's £2.5bn rollout will see superfast broadband download speeds of up to 40Mbps and upload speeds of up to 10Mbps put within reach of two-thirds of UK homes and businesses by 2015. A minority of the rollout - around a quarter - will get faster download speeds of up to 100Mbps via fibre-to-the-home technology.
BT added that FTTC technology could potentially support download speeds of up to 60Mbps and upload speeds of up to 15Mbps in the future.
To see the full list of 41 market towns on BT's fibre rollout map click through to page two...
The 41 market towns to get fibre:
ALFRETON East Midlands Derbyshire
BALDOCK East of England Hertfordshire
BATHGATE Scotland Lothian
BILLINGE North West Merseyside
BISHOP AUCKLAND North East Durham
BLANDFORD South West Dorset
DALKEITH Scotland Lothian
DARTMOUTH South West Devon
DEREHAM East of England Norfolk
DEVIZES South West Wiltshire
DORKING South East Surrey
EDINBURGH MUSSELBURGH Scotland Lothian
EPPING East of England Essex
FAVERSHAM South East Kent
FILEY Yorkshire and The Humber North Yorkshire
FRINTON-ON-SEA East of England Essex
GREAT DUNMOW East of England Essex
HALSTEAD East of England Essex
HUNGERFORD South East Berkshire
KIDLINGTON South East Oxfordshire
KNUTSFORD North West Cheshire
MIRFIELD Yorkshire and The Humber West Yorkshire
MONTROSE Scotland Tayside
MORPETH North East Northumberland
NANTWICH North West Cheshire
NEWMARKET East of England Suffolk
OSWESTRY West Midlands Shropshire
PENRITH North West Cumbria
PONTYCYMMER Wales Mid Glamorgan
RAINFORD North West Merseyside
RIPLEY East Midlands Derbyshire
ROYSTON, SOUTH YORKSHIRE Yorkshire and The Humber South Yorkshire
SANDWICH South East Kent
SHEERNESS South East Kent
SHERINGHAM East of England Norfolk
STOCKSBRIDGE Yorkshire and The Humber South Yorkshire
STOURPORT West Midlands Hereford & Worcester
WALLINGFORD South East Oxfordshire
WENDOVER South East Buckinghamshire
WESTBURY South West Wiltshire
WIMBORNE South West Dorset