BT Openreach announces fibre broadband pilot sites

BT Openreach has revealed which sites will pilot the two trials of its “Fibre to the Cabinet” broadband, which will potentially offer 40Mbps speeds to 30,000 customers.

The exchanges in Muswell Hill in North London and Whitchurch in South Glamoran will serve as locations for the tests, where up to 15,000 properties in each area will be connected.

The trials, which are set to begin in summer 2009, will follow a planned technical trial in the Foxhall Exchange in early 2009, and the launch of the fibre to the premises product in Kent earlier this year.

"The sites were chosen in consultation with communications providers and took into account feedback from Regional Development Agencies, Devolved Authorities and similar organisations," said David Campbell, BT Openreach's director of next-generation access.

The Fibre to the Cabinet operation will involve the moving of fibre cabinets located near businesses and homes. Though connections from cabinets to premises will still run via copper cables, speeds will be much greater than those currently possible with ADSL.

Campbell continued: “We have a good mix of areas, allowing us to test our products in both urban and semi-rural environments.

“These two sites were chosen from a shortlist and we expect to announce detailed plans for the initial market deployment of the Openreach product in early 2010, again with full consultation with all interested parties.”

Engineers will visit customers living within the pilot locations, to install fibre-compatible Network Termination Equipment (NTE), which will allow them to use the new technology.