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UK telecoms group BT has pledged to deliver super high speed broadband to 2.5 million homes by 2012.
The firm originally aimed to deliver its Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) internet service to just one million homes by that deadline date, before discovering a cheaper way of laying the high-speed internet lines required for the speeds.
BT’s super fast broadband service will be achieved by transmitting data through optical cables, which the firm says can deliver downstream speeds of 100Mbps.
Though 2.5 million Britons is a small portion of the UK’s populace, BT has also committed to deliver another 9 million homes with Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) tech by 2012.
FTTC speeds are significantly slower than FTTP, yet, hitting a top speed of 40Mbps, it will be an improvement on the majority of UK internet speeds today.
The combined FTTC and FTTP initiative will provide faster internet speeds to the equivalent of 40 per cent of BT customers.
“Service providers have asked us for more FTTP and so we have listened to them,” said Steve Robertson, CEO of BT spin-out firm Openreach.
“The UK already leads the world when it comes to broadband availability and today’s announcement will help the UK climb the speed league tables as well."
The internet cables that BT lays down will be accessible to rival firms, for a cost.
Competitor Virgin has pledged to provide internet speeds hitting as much as 200Mbps to its UK customers.
