BT extends its fibre optic broadband reach

BT Openreach has announced a further 159 upgrades to its UK telephone exchanges

BT looks to extend into rural areas

BT Openreach has announced that it will roll out its 40Mbit/s to 100Mbit/s fibre optic-based FTTC/FTTP service to a further 159 UK telephone exchanges.

It is in talks with public sector organisations to reach rural areas.

The telecoms giant has also recently committed to a subsidised £132m project in Cornwall, where a high-speed broadband network will reach between 80 and 90 per cent of homes and businesses by 2014.

Of the total project cost, £53.5m is being provided by the EU’s regional development funds.

However, there is still growing concern among businesses and homes in remote locations that BT will limit the extension of its broadband to towns and cities where it makes viable economic sense.

BT's aims are fairly moderate; it is hoping to reach 40 per cent of the UK population with its next-generation service in 2012 and aims to increase this to 66 per cent by 2015.

This move follows an announcement via Twitter from UK ISP Rutland Telecom, stating that they would bring superfast FTTC broadband service to Essendine – a rural village in Lincolnshire that BT had previously said was not economically viable.

Essendine is currently too far from a BT telephone exchange to receive a good internet connection, and according to the tweet this move by Rutland will see its internet speed rise from 0.5Mbit/s to 25Mbit/s.