Thousands more homes and businesses across Yorkshire and the Humber in line for super-fast broadband
Hoyland and Horton Bank included in BT’s £2.5 billion roll-out of fibre broadband
BT today announced an expansion of high-speed fibre broadband in Yorkshire and the Humber.
Hoyland and Horton Bank are the latest communities to be included in BT’s £2.5 billion commercial roll-out of the technology in the UK. More than 18,000 businesses and households in the two towns will have access to the service. The exchanges will be upgraded by the end of Spring 2014.
And fibre broadband will be made more widely available in areas which already have the high-speed technology or are due to receive it, benefiting more than 3,800 premises in nine locations across the region including Seacroft, Bingley, Brigg and Harehills.
Across Yorkshire and Humber as a whole, fibre broadband is already available to more than one million premises and this figure is expected to have reached more than 1.4 million by the end of Spring next year.
Tom Keeney, BT’s regional director for Yorkshire and the Humber, said: “We’re pleased to announce further investment in fibre broadband as part of our continuing commitment to make the technology as widely available as possible. Fast, sophisticated connections are the cornerstone of a successful community, impacting on many aspects of modern life and providing a platform for new businesses and jobs.
“Future-proofed fibre broadband transforms the way people use online services – from entertainment and education to shopping and social networking. It can also enhance the competitiveness of local firms, speeding up the way they do business and giving them access to cost-saving ‘cloud computing’ services.”
BT’s local network business, Openreach, is making fibre broadband available to two-thirds of UK homes and businesses by the end of Spring 20141. It 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 20Mbps2 and could deliver even faster speeds in the future.
Openreach is also starting to make fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) technology, where the fibre runs all the way to the home or business, commercially available on demand3 in some areas where fibre broadband has been deployed. FTTP-on-demand will offer the top current download speed of 330Mbps2. According to the regulator Ofcom, the current average UK residential broadband download speed is 12Mbps.
Andrew Palmer, regional director of the CBI, Yorkshire and the Humber, said: It’s great news that there have been further upgrades in this £2.5 billion commercial programme. Fast, reliable broadband makes it easier for people to make the most of the internet and all the opportunities it brings, and will be a welcome boost for our businesses, reflecting positively on the wider regional economy.”
Internet users with a fibre broadband connection can do much more online, all at the same time. A family can download a movie, watch a TV replay service, surf the net and play games online simultaneously. 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.
The upload speeds are the fastest widely available to consumers in the UK, with large video and data files being sent almost instantly and hi-resolution photos posted online in seconds. And high quality voice and video calls mean businesses can keep in touch with customers while they cut down on travel.
For further information on Openreach’s fibre broadband programme visit www.superfast-openreach.co.uk
ENDS
Notes to editors
1 BT’s deployment plans are subject to an acceptable environment for investment.
2 These are the top wholesale speeds available from Openreach to all service providers; speeds offered by service providers may vary.
3 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 the selected exchange areas will not initially be able to access fibre-based broadband. Alternative solutions for these locations are being investigated.
