According to BT’s open access network division, independent data shows 90% of the country can presently access its fibre network. It claims to be on track to reach 95% of the population by 2017.
It also claims to have upgraded over 4,700 phone exchanges and installed tens of thousands of street cabinets across the country.
“Our approach has delivered affordable superfast services to the vast majority of the country in the fastest possible time,” said Clive Selley, CEO of Openreach.
“We want to build upon that by making ultrafast broadband available to most of the UK. We will do this using a mix of G.fast technology and fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP), with the latter focussed mainly on new developments and small businesses in high streets and business parks.”
Openreach’s fibre rollout began in July 2009 and has passed an average of over 70,000 premises a week, said the company.
It plans to support the government’s consultation on a 10Mbps universal service obligation to cover the rest of the UK. The business has announced new FTTP trials to assess whether the technology can be installed more quickly.
