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Topic: Broadband

BT names next towns to get fibre upgrades

Summary: The company has announced its third phase of fibre exchange updates, which aims to bring super-fast broadband to 10 million homes by 2012

Natasha Lomas

By Natasha Lomas |

BT has announced the third swathe of exchanges it will be loading with its fibre-based superfast broadband, the next phase of its £1.5bn next-generation upgrade programme to make fibre available to 10 million homes by 2012.

Three-quarters of these premises (7.5 million homes) will get fibre to the cabinet technology, which enables up to 40Mbps broadband, as it still relies on copper lines for the last mile, while a quarter (2.5 million premises) will get full fibre to the home, enabling up to 100Mbps broadband.

The third phase of BT's fibre exchange upgrades is the biggest so far, with 303 exchanges set to get fibre between autumn 2010 and summer 2011, some four million customer lines.

For more on this story, see BT fibre broadband: Third wave of exchanges named on silicon.com.

Topics: Broadband, Networking

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11 comments
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  • It would be nice if BT could improve it's speed to the many who are still getting less than 1.5mbps. I have been with BT Broadband for about 10 years and 3 years ago I was getting between 2.5mbps and 3 mbps - now I am only getting 1.2mbps.
    I don't live in the back of beyond but in a semi rural area about 10 miles from Nottingham and 10 miles from Derby.
    Unless you live in the southeast or close to a major city then there seems little chance of getting an increase in your broadband speed. My experience as been a decrease.
    The annoying thing is - I pay just as much as everybody else.
    There I've now got that injustice of my chest.
    alantoft
    Reply Vote
  • Hi alantoft.

    I'm with Sky broadband, and also get about 1.5 mbps. Because of that, I get mine free. Just a thought...
    youngbazza
    Reply Vote
  • I dream of 1.5Mbs, on a good day, with the wind behind I get around 500k and I live within 10 miles of the M25 i.e. the South East. The issue with going to anyone else but BT is that you talk to second parties who then blame each other, I've been there and done that. Not forgetting of course that not all exchanges are unbundled so I would still have to use BT equipment. I have even complained to Oftel and I was offered £25 compensation but no increase in speed.
    matchingkevin
    Reply Vote
  • I had already looked into the Sky option but unfortunately their free broadband is not available in my area and the broadband they offer in my area would cost more than I pay BT.
    alantoft
    Reply Vote
  • 'Unless you live in the southeast or close to a major city then there...........' says alantoft. Don't you believe it, I live on the Sussex coast midway between Brighton and Porstmouth. I too delight in getting 1.5 but very often 1 or less. Our problem is compounded by the line to the house being alloy and not copper. This was installed in the 70's when BT decided they couldn't afford the copper prices of the day.
    What happens to alloy after 40 years underground? It de-grades and eventually turns to powder!
    My daughter who we visited a couple of weeks ago lives in a small town in France near Mont Blanc and gets 9 or 10 without any problem at all, using hert laptop at those speeds was a whole new experience. Going by BT progress we should be ok by around 2030, I'll be 95 then!
    cjb-fcb81
    Reply Vote
  • I have been with BT ever since the 56kB dial up days. I live about half a mile from the exchange. Sometimes I get 5.8mB downloads, but more often around about 1.2 mB. So its not an equipment problem, just an inability to cope with the traffic. What's more I live in a village!
    kengy
    Reply Vote
  • i had a lot of problems with sky when i first joined sky my connection was fine then it started to creep down my first speed test gave me a conection speed of 5meg after noticing a slow down it became intermitent going below 1meg so i looked at my sky my broadband then connection and it told me i had been capped at 2meg but i pay for 20 meg so i took some screen shots of what sky was telling me on my sky and a screen shot of my acutal speed and phoned them and gave them all this information and in less than 5 mins they had speeded it up and has been fine since so check if your being capped i bet you are.
    fadey-59b70
    Reply Vote
  • After living in SE (near Sevenoaks) for 4 years I have just managed to get BT broadband, and having just checked my download speed it is a massive 130kbps, yes you read right 130 kbps. So stop moaning.
    tarkus-4687b
    Reply Vote
  • Tonight 128k on btbroadband - what the hell has happened!!!!
    Jonny47
    Reply Vote
  • Yeah,if any of you can get on a company like virgin or 1 which has theyre own fib opt. network that's obv. the best choice but i know fm my own experience how bad sky and bt speed's can be.I just changed to virgin B.B. and am paying for 20mb of which i'm actually getting about 17-19mb which is brilliant.What a change it is fm b4 when i was paying sky for the same speed and only getting around 2mbps,that's 10% man!! I know how you feel...
    billyboy999
    Reply Vote
  • i live in benfleet 1.5 miles from the exchange i get between 5.0-6.2. there is still a lot of aluminum in the ground e side and d side from cabs . i cannot see the company meeting targets . mike
    mikeexbt1941
    Reply Vote
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