Openreach to bring fibre to 163 additional exchanges
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Openreach to bring fibre to 163 additional exchanges

BT subsidiary Openreach is to expand fibre broadband to an additional 163 UK exchanges as part of a £2.5 billion commercial roll-out.

The exchanges that are scheduled to be enabled across the UK through 2013 will span from Torquay, Devon to Kilbirnie, Scotland, adding more than one million homes and businesses to Openreach’s fibre footprint.

The subsidiary plans to provide two thirds of UK premises with fibre broadband by 2014 and will further extend this footprint through broadband development money from the government. To date, more than 11 million premises have access to Openreach’s 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, MD of network investment at Openreach. “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 Broadband Development UK funding.”

Openreach’s fibre network will be available on an open wholesale basis and use a mix of FTTC and FTTP technologies. FTTC connected buildings will be able to achieve download speeds of up to 80Mbps, while FTTP connected homes and businesses will be able to achieve downloads speeds of up to 330Mbps.

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