BT adds more full-fibre to UK’s broadband diet
BT is accelerating expansion of its highspeed fibre broadband network, with plans to reach three million homes and businesses by the end of 2020.
Its wholly owned digital network business, Openreach, aims to recruit and train 3,000 engineers this year to extend its fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) target by 50 per cent. About 500,000 premises already have full-fibre connections on the Openreach network, which provide speeds of up to one gigabit a second.
Up to 40 UK locations will be connected, including Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, London in the first phase.
Openreach expects the cost of building FTTP in towns and cities over the next three years to be about £300-400 per property passed, plus connection costs of £150-175. The roll-out will depend on it being able to make “an acceptable return” on its investment. It plans to reach 10 million homes and firms by the mid 2020s.
CEO Clive Selley, pictured, said: “We will identify the cities, towns and rural areas where we can build a future-proofed, FTTP network that’s capable of delivering gigabit speeds to all homes and businesses at an affordable cost.”
CityFibre, which is working with Vodafone to bring ultrafast broadband to up to 5 million homes and businesses by 2025, said it welcomed any contribution to the drive towards national coverage. But it added: “It is not in the UK’s best interest to encourage further entrenchment of the incumbent monopoly. As successfully demonstrated all over the world, it is a new generation of infrastructure builders that is best placed to deliver full fibre.”
A TalkTalk spokesman said: “While it’s welcome that Openreach now accepts the need for greater full-fibre investment, their plans depend on widespread take-up and eventually forcing customers to buy the product.
“It’s crucial the transition to full fibre is not used to conceal large price rises.”