Super-Fast fibre broadband goes live in Grangemouth
More than 8,000 local homes and businesses to benefit from BT’s £2.5 billion roll-out
High-speed fibre broadband is now available to the first homes and businesses in Grangemouth, BT announced today.
More than 8,000 local households and firms will be able to join the high-speed revolution as engineers complete the local upgrade in the coming weeks.
Grangemouth follows Falkirk and Larbert, which were recently named the first two towns in the local authority area to have access to fibre broadband. Bo’ness, Bonnybridge and Denny will also be upgraded.
By the end of Spring 2014 almost 50,000 local homes and businesses will be able to benefit from BT’s £2.5 billion fibre roll-out programme.
BT is also seeking to work in partnership with the public sector to reach those parts of the area that lie outside its commercial footprint.
Brendan Dick, BT Scotland director, said: “BT’s fibre footprint is continuing to expand across the Falkirk area. It’s good news for the people of Grangemouth, as all our research points to long-term advantages for business growth and the local economy.
“And as our engineers complete the Grangemouth upgrade around 8,000 local households and businesses will be able to discover for themselves the advantages of a fibre broadband connection. Whatever you’re doing online, from shopping to homework to social networking, you can do it better and faster with fibre.
“It also offers new possibilities and better ways of working for local companies and gives them an extra weapon in these economically challenging times.”
BT’s fibre footprint currently passes more than 15 million UK homes and businesses. It is expanding all the time and is now due to pass two-thirds of UK premises – around 19 million premises – during Spring 2014, at least 18 months ahead of the original timetable. 2
Openreach, BT’s local network business, is primarily deploying fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) technology, where the fibre runs from the exchange to a local roadside cabinet. FTTC offers download speeds of up to 80Mbps and upload speeds of up to 20Mbps3 and could deliver even faster speeds in the future.
From Spring 2013 Openreach aims to start to make fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) technology, where the fibre runs all the way to the home or business, commercially available on demand4in areas where fibre broadband has been deployed. FTTP-on-demand will offer the top current download speed of 330Mbps3. According to the regulator Ofcom, the current average UK residential broadband download speed is 12Mbps.
At home, fibre broadband enables a family to simultaneously download a movie, watch a TV replay service, surf the internet and play games online all at the same time. A whole album can be downloaded in less than 30 seconds and a feature length HD movie in less than 10 minutes, whilst high-resolution photos can be uploaded to Facebook in seconds.
Unlike other companies, Openreach offers fibre broadband access to all service providers on an open, wholesale basis, underpinning a competitive market. For further information on Openreach’s fibre broadband programme visit www.superfast-openreach.co.uk
ENDS
Notes to editors
1 Research taken from Social Study 2012 – The Economic Impact of BT across the UK by Regeneris Consulting – see www.btsocialstudy.co.uk for more information.
2 BT’s deployment plans are subject to an acceptable environment for investment.
3 These are the top wholesale speeds available from Openreach to all service providers; speeds offered by service providers may vary.
4 Openreach will levy an installation charge for FTTP on demand. It will be up to service providers to decide whether they pass that on to businesses or consumers wishing to use the product.
Due to the current network topography, and the economics of deployment, it is likely that some premises within selected exchange areas will not initially be able to access fibre-based broadband. Openreach is considering alternative solutions for these locations.
