markgolledge.com

On 23rd March 2009, BT accounced its super fast broadband sites, with an ability for areas to connect at up to 60Mbps. This followed Ofcom approval of the BT fibre project to bring super fast broadband to the UK in early March.

I’m pleased to say that Chelmsford exchange has been included in one of the trial site areas that will take part in the ‘Fibre to the Cabinet’ (FTTC) trial alongside other locations (29) as listed here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/mar/23/btgroup-broadband.

There will be trials in Muswell Hill and Whitchurch (Wales) in summer 2009 before early roll out of the other trial areas in early 2010 (Chelmsford expected Q1 2010). This will initially serve 500,000 households. This is then expected to expand to 40% of the UK by 2012.

This is hopefully good news for us in Chelmsford, having recently moved across to the ADSL2+ upgrade on existing copper lines (apparently will push maximum speeds to 24Mbps although due to my location from the exchange - more like 6Mbps).

According to the Guardian website: “The “fibre to the cabinet” (FTTC) technology takes hair-thin optical fibre from the exchanges to the same street as the connected homes, though the connection to the home itself still uses standard copper lines… Because the distance from the “cabinet”, where the new fibre-optic system terminates, to the home is so much shorter – measurable in metres rather than kilometres – than the usual connection from the home to the exchange, a higher-frequency signal can be used to carry more data.”

In a nutshell that means a fibre optic cable from the exchange to the cabinet and then copper wire for the shorter distance from the cabinet to the home.

However, it is strange that BT are introducing this in areas which are already have super fast broadband offered by Virgin Media - surely business sense would suggest that you’d go to areas not already supplied (as there is no competition)….not that I’m complaining of course!

It is as yet unclear how much BT Openreach will charge ISPs to use their FTTC although I’m sure it won’t be cheap (BT will have to cover their own costs). Thinkbroadband suggests it’s more likely to be £30-50 rather than the £5-20 we’re currently experiencing with the first generation broadband. We’ll learn more from the London and Wales trial sites in the summer so watch this space….IPTV, VOIP over a better connection could soon be coming our way.

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Technology Broadband, Technology