By: MarkJ - 15 March, 2010 (12:46 PM) - Score: 5638 - Fixed Line Broadband

BT Wholesale has confirmed 148 new telephone exchanges (999 total) which will bring its 'up to' 24Mbps ( ADSL2+ ) Wholesale Broadband Connect (WBC) service to more than 16.2 million UK homes and businesses by winter 2010. The new exchanges represent a further 6% of UK homes and businesses, bringing the total of enabled and to be enabled named exchanges to 61% (coverage is currently nearing 55% for the end of March).

Subject to demand, BT Wholesale intends to roll out these higher speed copper based services to telephone exchanges serving around 75% (20 million end users) of the country by Spring 2011. BT claims that 800,000 of its end users are already taking its ADSL2+ service, which grows by around 20,000 - 30,000 each week.

Running over BT’s 21st Century Network ( 21CN ), WBC is not just about ADSL2+ broadband services and is also designed to support the operators latest 'up to' 40Mbps Fibre-to-the-Cabinet ( FTTC ) next generation broadband technology. FTTC itself is aiming to reach at least 10 million (40%) UK homes and businesses by summer 2012. All WBC enabled exchanges are connected by Gbit Ethernet fibre links.

The list of exchanges is a bit too long to post in this news item so instead we've uploaded them to a temporary page - HERE. The list includes exchanges in the East Midlands, East of England, London, North East, North West, Northern Ireland, Scotland, South East, South West, Wales, West Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber.

In terms of ADSL2+ technology, BT is still playing catch-up but it is gaining ground. Broadband ISPs, such as Be Broadband UK, have been offering 'up to' 24Mbps ADSL2+ technology quite successfully since 2005 and already cover about 70% of all BT lines. Similarly TalkTalk is another ISP offering ADSL2+ technology and can reach an impressive 80%.