BT Openreach, which is responsible for ensuring that all rival operators have equality of access to BT's local network, has today announced January 2010 trials of next generation Fibre-to-the-Premise ( FTTP ) technology in “Brownfield” sites. However they've been issuing briefings about it for several months so it's not really all that new.

Two locations - Bradwell Abbey in Milton Keynes and Highams Park, London - have been selected for the trial, which will see speeds of up to 100Mbps delivered to up to 20,000 homes and businesses in each area by March 2010. The trial products will be available to all UK communications providers on an open, wholesale basis.

FTTP is essentially the same as Fibre-to-the-Home ( FTTH ) technology and, as the name suggests, will take a fibre optic cable directly into your home for the fastest possible speeds. Previously FTTP had only been targeted towards new build (Greenfield) sites.


Most FTTP deployments are expected to remain niche, with the bulk of BT's future broadband being done through FTTC. FTTC delivers a fast fibre optic link to the operators street level cabinets, while the remaining connection - between cabinets and homes - is done using VDSL2 (similar to current ADSL broadband but faster in short distances) over existing copper cable; FTTC can deliver speeds of up to 60Mbps.

BT is currently spending £1.5bn on the deployment of large scale FTTC and small scale FTTP. The operator hopes to reach as many as 10m UK homes (40%) by 2012, albeit mostly with the slower FTTC technology.