10
March
2016
|
12:56
Europe/London

Openreach announces ultrafast fibre plans for Cherry Hinton, Cambridgeshire

Summary
BT today announced that Cherry Hinton will be one of the first communities in the UK to get the latest ultrafast broadband.

New      pilots of ‘G.fast’ technology to cover about 12,500 Cherry Hinton homes and      businesses

  • Broadband speeds of up to 330Mbps using G.fast

BT today announced that Cherry Hinton will be one of the first communities in the UK to get the latest ultrafast broadband.

Around 12,500 households and businesses in Cherry Hinton will have access to speeds of up to 330Mbps using G.fast.

The Cherry Hinton announcement is a key part of plans by Openreach, BT’s local network business, to connect more households and small businesses in the UK to ultrafast fibre via its open access network.

Having already committed to delivering ultrafast broadband to the majority of premises in the UK over the next decade, Openreach is building on its G.fast technology trials by making Gillingham and Cherry Hinton, Cambridgeshire, pilot sites. Work on the pilots will begin soon.

Clive Selley, CEO of Openreach, said: “The UK is a leader when it comes to superfast broadband. Nine out of ten premises have access to fibre today and this will grow to 95 per cent by the end of next year – but I want to get high speeds to everyone, so we’re also developing solutions for the final five per cent of the country.

“I’m determined to roll out ultrafast broadband, and G.fast technology is the best way to deliver that to the majority of the UK as quickly as possible. We also plan to roll out significantly more fibre-to-the-premises, and we’re trialling a range of options in Bradford to use that technology increasingly in future – wherever it makes sense.

“A large number of new housing developments will also get fibre-to-the-premises infrastructure built for free under our latest plans, so that’s great news for developers and homeowners too.”

Dave Hughes, BT’s East of England regional director, said: “It is great news that Cherry Hinton is at the forefront of the UK’s exciting plans for ultrafast broadband. Once again, our region is in a leading position on the introduction of a new technology, which is providing a major boost for households and businesses. This exciting technology is transforming the opportunities for communities across the region and creating a lasting legacy, which will play a key role in their future prosperity for many years to come.”

Openreach has made a commitment to build FTTP infrastructure into any new housing development in the UK that has more than 250 premises, free of charge[i], and to conduct two new trials of Business FTTP technology in Bradford.

It has built the largest superfast network in the UK covering almost 25 million premises. It is now going to deliver much faster, or ‘ultrafast’, speeds using a mixture of FTTP and G.fast technologies, while continuing to fill the gaps in superfast broadband coverage.

Openreach has the largest FTTP network in the UK – covering mainly apartment blocks and communities covered by the Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) programme, which BT is co-funding with government. It will now begin new trials in Bradford to explore if the technology can be installed faster and more efficiently in business parks and high streets. Work has already started on the network, and the first businesses are expected to be connected in late Spring.

Although every business in the UK already has access to ultrafast speeds via dedicated lines or ‘Ethernet’, the results of the Bradford trials – and feedback from industry - could lead to a new business-grade FTTP product being developed for SMEs with speeds of up to 1Gbps and strong service guarantees.

Having recently pledged to connect all new housing developments in the UK with fibre, Openreach today offered to build ultrafast FTTP infrastructure for freei to new sites containing 250 premises or more – with a joint funding option available to smaller developments.

Fibre broadband from Openreach - with speeds of up to 80Mbps – is currently available to well over 24 million premises using Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) technology. The roll out of that technology continues, and it is helping the UK to consistently outperform the rest of the EU ‘big five’ on measures such as availability, speeds and take-up according to Ofcom[ii].


 

[i] [i] Construction of Fibre to the Premises infrastructure (the ducting, poles and wires) will be carried out for free on developments of more than 250 premises. Standard connection and ongoing service provider charges will apply and excess construction charges will continue to apply where the site is more than 4.5 kilometres from Openreach’s existing fibre network.

[ii]Ofcom’s European Broadband Scorecard shows the UK is ranked as leader of the five major EU economies -France, Germany, Italy, Spain - on a range of independent broadband measures

The International Telecommunication Union's (ITU) global ITC Development Index 2015 ranks the UK 4th out of 167 countries on telecoms/broadband access - assessing various levels of information and communication technology access, use and skills.