BT promises major copper broadband upgrade

'20Mbit/s' service available to 20 million premises by 2012

BT plans to upgrade huge swathes of its copper broadband infrastructure by the end of 2011.

The upgrade will provide access to 20Mbit/s services to 20 million premises.

Currently, only 2.3 million premises are connected to BT's ASDL2+ copper broadband service, Wholesale Broadband Connect (WBC). The latest announcement extends that significantly.

It will also enable other internet service providers to offer faster broadband connections, BT claimed.

"WBC offers communications providers the ability to provide their broadband customers with greater control, choice and flexibility as well as higher speeds," said Cameron Rejali, managing director for products at BT Wholesale.

While the copper upgrade should deliver faster connections for end users, they are unlikely to see speeds as high as 20Mbit/s.

Ofcom recently reported that the average download speed received by users of so-called "up-to 20Mbit/s" was just 6.2Mbit/s.

BT said its deployment of fibre broadband - which offers headline speeds of 40Mbit/s - was on course to be available to two-thirds of the UK by the end of 2015. Currently it is available to four million homes and businesses.