Wifi Revolution

 

British Telecom’s (BT (News - Alert)) local access network business has announced details of its deployment of fibre at Ebbsfleet Valley in Kent. 

 

According to BT, from August 2008, fibre-optic cable will be used instead of traditional copper to connect homes on Land Securities’ 1,000 acre new build project.

 

Company officials informed that approximately 10,000 homes will be built at Ebbsfleet Valley, along with six million sq. ft of commercial space and three million sq ft of retail, leisure and community facilities.

 

Also, from August, Openreach is expected to offer the industry a fibre based broadband product at Ebbsfleet Valley that can support data at speeds of up to 100Mbit/s. Officials explained that this would allow multiple HDTV channels to be watched simultaneously, HDTV gaming, and near instant music downloads. 

 

Openreach plans to offer all its products on a wholesale basis to all UK communication providers. At present, BT already provides some 120,000 businesses across the country with fibre connections.

 

 “This is our first deployment of fibre rather than copper to residential customers on a new build site,” Steve Robertson, CEO at Openreach, said in a press release.

 

He also pointed out that the deployment of fibre will enable communication providers to gauge what demand exists for very high speed broadband, and to assess what commercial models may be appropriate in the future. 

 

Andy Freeman, head of project management at Land Securities commented: “Ebbsfleet Valley, which has been identified by the Government as one of four key transformational projects in the Thames Gateway (News - Alert), is the first development site in the UK to initiate fibre to the premises technology to all new homes.”

 

BT officials said that the company would like to make greater use of fibre in suitable new build sites, and indicated that a significant opportunity is presented by the Government’s plan to build 3 million new houses by 2020.

 

Though, they also stated that this investment critically depends upon an agreement with Ofcom, which is currently engaged in consultation about how best to extend the regulatory framework to accommodate future fibre deployment.

 

 

 

 

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