BT Openreach has announced that an extra one million homes and businesses will be able to access its fibre infrastructure.
Openreach has pledged to bring fibre to around two-thirds of the UK by the end of 2014. As part of that, another 163 exchanges across the UK will be able to access fibre,
“This is great news for 163 communities across the UK where fibre will bring huge benefits by helping to create jobs and boosting local economies,” said Mike Galvin, Openreach managing director for network investment.
“Today’s announcement shows that we are well into our journey to bring fibre to two-thirds of the UK by the end of 2014. We have now announced the bulk of the exchanges we will be deploying fibre to under our own steam but we are keen to go even further with the help of BDUK funding.
“We will continue to engage with local government and communities to try and give as many people as possible access to the benefits of fibre broadband.”
BT is hoping the Broadband Development UK (BDUK) project, which has pumped £530 million into widening fibre deployments into rural areas, will let it set up more exchanges in the coming months. The telecoms giant has won all BDUK contracts to date. Just this month, it won BDUK-supported deals in Suffolk and Surrey.
However, as all BDUK projects are currently on hold, thanks to an investigation by the European Commission’s competition arm over handing state aid to a limited number of vendors, BT may not be able to extend its reach much further than its commercial investment. A decision from the EC is expected before the end of the year.
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The EU is perfectly right in investigate - this looks like a very cosy way of the government giving BT and a few others a taxpayer's hand out.
Either Government should pay for the fibre and charge BT and others a rental (best option) or BT does the job with 100% of its own money.