BT Openreach unveils 98 fibre upgrade locations

Firm claims 330Mbit/s services will be made available soon

BT Openreach has announced a further 98 exchanges that have been upgraded to support superfast broadband services of up to 110Mbit/s in locations across the UK, including Devon, Derbyshire, Manchester and Scotland.

BT has committed to providing high-speed services to two-thirds of the UK by 2014 and the new upgrades should add a further 800,000 homes and businesses to the firm's network.

This will allow other operators, such as Sky, TalkTalk and BT's own Retail division, to sell the services on to customers in these locations with the promise of higher speeds.

The upgrades cover both fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) and fibre to the premises (FTTP) services, with the former offering up to 80Mbit/s download and 20Mbit/s upload speeds, and the latter up to 110Mbit/s download speeds.

BT has also been trialing 330Mbit/s services and reiterated its intention to make these services commercially available in set locations in due course.

"Our rollout of fibre continues apace, with over 10 million homes now having access to the many benefits this technology can deliver," said Mike Galvin, the managing director of network investment at BT Openreach.

BT would be working with Broadband Delivery UK and local governments and communities to extend its fibre deployment, he added.

BT is currently in discussions with the Highlands and Islands Enterprise organisation, after it was awarded funding of £120m from the Scottish government to provide broadband to the area, one of the remotest locations in the UK.

A full list of the 98 locations upgraded by BT can be seen on this link Google Document hosted by V3.