NR09-093 March 23, 2009
East of England among the first to benefit from largest ever UK investment in super-fast broadband
Super-fast speeds available to more than 130,000 customers in Hemel Hempstead, Watford, St Albans, Chelmsford, Luton and Leagrave by next year
The East of England will be among the first regions to benefit from the largest investment in super-fast broadband ever seen in the UK.
BT today announced that it would be installing fibre-based broadband in parts of Hemel Hempstead, St Albans, Watford, Chelmsford and Luton and Leagrave early next year as part of a £1.5 billion project.
Speeds of up to 40Mb/s will initially be available to more than 130,000 homes and businesses in the six communities and to 500,000 customers in the UK as a whole with the prospect of them rising to 60Mb/s. These speeds are more than ten times those experienced now by most UK households. The next locations, serving a further million homes and businesses, will be announced in the Autumn.
It is the first major phase of the UK’s biggest ever investment programme in super-fast broadband. BT has pledged to spend £1.5 billion by 2012 to ensure 40 per cent of UK homes and businesses - some 10 million premises - can enjoy fibre-based super-fast broadband. The UK already leads the way in terms of DSL broadband access1 and penetration2 and BT’s plan will ensure the UK climbs the speed tables as well.
Peter McCarthy-Ward, East of England regional director for BT, said: “Super-fast broadband is essential to this region’s future so it is great to announce this initial set of locations. Once again, the East of England is at the forefront of one of the most important projects to take place in recent years. It will play a vital role in the UK’s future as a knowledge-based economy.
“The wider industry will now be able to plan ahead as we will be making our services available on a wholesale basis. This approach will benefit customers as there will undoubtedly be fierce competition for their business.”
BT’s local network business Openreach will be making fibre based services available in early 2010 to nearly 23,000 homes and businesses in Hemel Hempstead, nearly 24,000 in St Albans, more than 20,000 in Watford, nearly 21,000 in Chelmsford, more than 23,000 in Luton and more than 20,000 in the Luton suburb of Leagrave.
Steve Robertson, chief executive of Openreach, said: “We have worked very closely with industry, development agencies and local authorities to choose these sites and I would like to thank everyone who has worked with us to make this happen. We are in discussion with others so expect similar announcements in the months to come.”
Deborah Cadman, chief executive of the East of England Development Agency, said: "This is very good news for businesses and individuals in the East of England.
“Broadband has been a vital part of the success story of this region. Businesses are using it to boost their competitiveness and find new customers, whilst households are benefiting from new entertainment and educational opportunities. But we are still only at the start of a very fast journey - a journey in which super-fast broadband will play an ever more important role. Today's announcement will keep our region at the forefront of the UK's economic performance and position our businesses well for the future.”
The ‘fibre to the cabinet’ (FTTC) technology will offer initial speeds of up to 40Mb/s with the prospect of those rising to up to 60Mb/s. This will give customers enough speed to run multiple bandwidth-hungry applications. For example, some members of a family could be watching different HD movies while others were gaming or working on complex graphics or video projects.
As well as being able to download graphics and data much more quickly, users will benefit from substantially improved “upstream” speeds of up to 10Mb/s – the highest in the UK. Customers will be able to post videos, experience HD video conferencing and enjoy interactive HD gaming to the full.
Openreach will install fibre between local exchanges and the street cabinets that sit between those exchanges and the premises served by them.
The fibre will transform the speeds available even though the last link in the chain – from the street cabinet to the home or office – will remain copper. Openreach is aware there are some premises that will not be able to be served by this technology and so it is currently looking at alternative solutions for those.
This major investment in fibre forms part of BT’s wider strategy of delivering next generation broadband services nationwide. Forty per cent of UK exchanges are already enabled with advanced copper-based broadband services offering speeds of up to 24 Mb/s and BT will roll these services out further in the future.
BT provides fibre to the premises of more than 120,000 businesses, and has deployed more than 10 million kilometres of fibre in the network. It is also committed to wholesaling its new services – unlike many other companies and countries – thereby ensuring Britain remains the most competitive broadband market in the world.
1 OECD Broadband Indicator shows DSL coverage in the UK to be ahead of France, Spain, Italy, Germany and the USA
2 OECD Broadband Indicator shows UK broadband penetration to be ahead of France, Germany, USA, Spain and Italy
