BT earmarks 69 exchanges for fibre upgrade

bt-home-hub-v2 BT has published a further list of 69 exchanges it will upgrade to offer faster broadband by running fibre connections, providing top speeds of 40Mbps, to street cabinets (FTTC) by next summer.

Crucially this upgrade list fill the gaps in some of the UK’s broadband Not Spots, such as Basingstoke in Hampshire, as well as providing access to faster next-gen speeds. The majority of the upgrades are set to fall in London and the South East, with just four exchanges in Scotland being upgraded, and three in Wales.

This news gives a clearer picture of BT’s Broadband roadmap for the next three years. Earlier this wee it was revealed that trials of FTTC broadband in London’s Muswell Hill and Cardiff’s Whitchurch areas had begun. Plans to test out faster Fibre to the Home (FTTH) next March were also outlined.

Steve Robertson, CEO of Openreach, said: “We had aimed to get fibre to half a million homes by next March but we’re now being far more ambitious. We’ve received a tremendous response to date and so we’re keen to get on with the job.”

BT plans to connect 10 million UK homes to their next-gen fibre optic network by 2012, in a massive investment programme costing the company £1.5 billion.

To see if your local exchange is due for an upgrade, head over to Samknows here. The list of exchanges due for an upgrade are as follows: