BT unveils next tranche of fibre roll out

BT offices

BT has announced the latest wave in its plans to roll out fibre-based broadband.

The latest batch of exchanges to be hooked up to the fibre network will cover 705,000 homes and businesses, according to the company. In total, BT says it now covers 16m homes and businesses. It will announce a further batch of fibre-ready exchanges this summer.

BT is also planning to increase the speeds of its fibre connections. Fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) will increase to 80mbps downstream and 20mbps upstream.

BT's faster fibre to the premises (FTTP) connections will see a 3-times boost in speed, from 110Mbps downstream to 3330Mbps downstream, and up to 30Mbps upstream. According to BT this will be a "premium product offering very fast speeds and will be aimed at small to medium businesses, not the mass market". The FTTP connections will be offered through BT Openreach.

Businesses interested in fibre services can check if they are near an enabled exchange