Be Broadband to bring own fibre to the table

Be Broadband, the UK’s leading provider of ADSL2+ broadband owned by O2, has hinted that it may unroll its own fibre-optic network to rival those of Virgin Media and BT. This news comes a day after it was announced that BT may be opening up its fibre network in the same manner as it currently does with its copper lines.

According to a post over at ISP Review, Be has responded enthusiastically to the news:

“The news that BT are preparing to open up so that other broadband providers can run their own high-speed broadband networks through their infrastructure will help us and other businesses better assess the case for fibre deployment. Although we will wait until BT confirms this move before revealing any of our own plans, one thing for certain is that the UK lags behind most of Europe now in terms of rolling out fibre broadband, which can’t persist for longer.”

BT Infinity – BT’s fibre optic broadband service – has only just launched and is currently only available to a very limited number of UK customers. Current plans will see BT able to supply 40 per cent of the UK with fibre-optic cable by 2012. Like ISP Review, we wonder if Virgin Media – whose fibre network currently covers over 50 per cent of the UK – will be made to open up its network as well.

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