BT announces plans for 100Mb super speed fibre optic cables for 2012
BT has announced investment in the UK telecommunications infrastructure with plans to run fibre optics cables to our doorstep or thereabouts.
Expenditure will begin on the £1.5bn project as of this year and it’s thought that the new network will be reaching your machines by 2012 at speeds of up to 100Mb.
The move comes after calls from industry regulator Ofcom and undoubtedly as a knock on from the panic that’s rife among ISPs caused largely by BBC iPlayer and the future demands of all us greedy internet users.
Part of the deal is that Ofcom will protect BT’s considerable investment, in other words ensuring that they remain the company reaping the profits as smaller ISPs lease out their fibre.
The network will be both FTTP (fibre to the premises) for maximum speeds and FTTC (fibre to the cabinet) where the last few hundred metres will still have to be by old school copper at 40Mb at the best, although BT is looking into new technology to increasing that to 60Mb. I wouldn’t hold your breath though.
Those in some rural areas will have to settle for plain, old ADSL2+ with 24Mb speeds and a lot of fist shaking at BT and city dwellers before running away scared when aeroplanes fly overhead.
Expect more announcements on the project in September and keep a careful eye on those bills. BT has said that they will be postponing their share buy back scheme but I do wonder whether that’ll be enough to cover the whole project?
BT (via the Register)
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