BT will add 178 exchanges to fibre deployment programme

BT has said it will add a further 178 exchanges to its £2.5bn fibre deployment programme.

The company said that the rollout, along with the exchanges previously announced, will help it reach its target of delivering superfast broadband to two thirds of UK premises by the end of 2014.

"Superfast broadband is already within reach of more than six million premises today and we are on track to pass ten million premises next year," said Olivia Garfield, CEO of BT's infrastructure company Openreach.

Ian Livingston, CEO of BT, said that to cover 90 per cent of UK premises within the next few years, BT is relying on public sector stimulus, such as those funds being administered by broadband government policy deliverer Broadband Delivery UK.

BT said that the benefits for businesses come from the additional bandwidth that allows businesses to work more efficiently.

The new fibre speed will be 40Mbit/s, up from an average of 6.8Mbit/s; the 40Mbit/s will double to 80Mbit/s in 2012.

It has also launched a faster alternative in some locations that will offer speeds of up to 300Mbit/s from spring 2012.

Separately, BT has also secured a £45m deal with independent brokerage and investment firm CLSA. BT will provide unified trading systems, collaboration and compliance services and voice and data for the firm across the UK, the US and 14 countries in Asia Pacific.

The seven-year deal will include a professional services component to manage security and firewall services, application optimisation, device management and an all-day maintenance and support team.

"Consolidating our communications and network requirements with a single global partner will make us more efficient," said Thiyagarajah Rajah, CLSA CIO.