UPD BT Reveal Next 73 UK Locations for its Superfast Fibre Broadband Rollout

BTOpenreach, which provides UK ISPs with access to BT’s local and national telecoms infrastructure, has today announced the next batch of 73 new telephone exchange upgrades for its superfast ‘up to’ 40-80Mbps Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) and 100-300Mbps Fibre-to-the-Premises ( FTTP ) based internet access technologies.

The new list (phases 9b), when taken by itself, covers 705,000 homes and businesses (150,400 premises of which are in Scotland). The majority of these exchanges have been given a Ready for Service (RFS) date of Spring 2013 and, once enabled, should bring BT’s total superfast broadband coverage up to almost 16 Million UK premises.

BTs FTTx TELEPHONE EXCHANGE Upgrades (Phase 9b)

ABERDEEN NORTH – Aberdeen City
ACOCKS GREEN – West Midlands
ALVASTON – Derbyshire
AYR – South Ayrshire
BARROW-IN-FURNESS – Cumbria
BONESS – Falkirk
BRADFORD-ON-AVON – Wiltshire
BRIXHAM – Devon
BROXBURN – West Lothian
BUXTON; DERBYSHIRE – Derbyshire
CANFORD CLIFFS – Dorset
CHIPPING SODBURY – Gloucestershire
CLAUGHTON – Merseyside
CRADLEY HEATH – West Midlands
CULLOMPTON – Devon
DAVIDSONS MAINS – City of Edinburgh
ECCLES – Greater Manchester
ELLESMERE PORT – Cheshire
FALKIRK – Falkirk
FISHPONDS – City of Bristol
FLEETWOOD – Lancashire
FORFAR – Angus
FRASERBURGH – Aberdeenshire
GLASGOW KIRKINTILLOCH – East Dunbartonshire
GLASGOW MARYHILL – Glasgow City
GLASGOW PAISLEY – Renfrewshire
GLASTONBURY – Somerset
GOUROCK – Inverclyde
GRANGEMOUTH – Falkirk
GREAT YARMOUTH TOWN – Norfolk
HEBDEN BRIDGE – West Yorkshire
HIGHBURY – West Midlands
HIGHCLIFFE – Dorset
HORWICH – Greater Manchester
INVERNESS – Highland
KINGSWINFORD – West Midlands
KIRKBY IN ASHFIELD – Nottinghamshire
LARBERT – Falkirk
LEIGH; GREATER MANCHESTER – Greater Manchester
LLANELLI – Sir Gaerfyrddin – Carmarthenshire
LONGRIDGE – Lancashire
LOW FELL – Tyne and Wear
MANNINGHAM – West Yorkshire
MELTON MOWBRAY – Leicestershire
MERSTHAM – Surrey
MOTHERWELL – North Lanarkshire
PAIGNTON – Devon
PARKSTONE – Dorset
PORT TALBOT – Castell-nedd Port Talbot – Neath Port Talbot
POULTON; LANCASHIRE – Lancashire
PRIORY – West Midlands
RAVENHILL – Abertawe – Swansea
RHYL – Sir Ddinbych – Denbighshire
SANDIACRE – Nottinghamshire
SEDGLEY – West Midlands
SHAFTESBURY – Dorset
SHARROW – South Yorkshire
SIDMOUTH – Devon
ST ANNE’S – Lancashire
ST. BUDEAUX – Devon
ST. MARYCHURCH – Devon
STANECASTLE – North Ayrshire
STREET – Somerset
SWANSEA – Abertawe – Swansea
TROON – South Ayrshire
VENTNOR – Isle of Wight
WADSLEY BRIDGE – South Yorkshire
WEST WIGSTON – Leicestershire
WHITCHURCH;SHROPSHIRE – Gwynedd – Gwynedd
WILLENHALL – West Midlands
WOBURN SANDS – Bedfordshire
WOLVERHAMPTON – West Midlands
WORKINGTON – Cumbria

Each of the telephone exchanges mentioned above will support BT’s FTTC technology, although at this point it’s not clear whether any of those listed will also be enabled for the operators fastest fibre optic FTTP service (we hope to have an answer shortly). A number of UK ISPs are already offering BT-based superfast FTTC broadband services, although BT-Infinity and PlusNet are still two of the cheapest.

BT is investing £2.5bn into its national UK deployment of fibre optic broadband services, which aims to reach 40% of UK (10 Million premises) by the end of 2012 and 66% in 2014. BT could potentially push this coverage up to 90% but that will be heavily dependent upon how much public funding they receive via the governments Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) office budget (£530m + £100m Urban Broadband Fund and £100m of EU money).

Previous BT-FTTC/FTTP UK Exchange Rollout Updates
* March 2009 – 29 (FTTC) Exchanges
* July 2009 – 69 (FTTC) Exchanges
* January 2010 – 63 (FTTC) Exchanges
* March 2010 – 303 (FTTC) Exchanges
* September 2010 – 159 (FTTC/FTTP) Exchanges
* January 2011 – 41 (FTTC/FTTP) Exchanges
* April 2011 – 156 (FTTC/FTTP) Exchanges
* June 2011 – 66 (FTTC/FTTP) Exchanges
* December 2011 – 73 (FTTC) Exchanges

UPDATE 12:17pm

BT informs us that today’s new has “nearly completed the announcement of our commercial footprint of approx. two thirds of the UK premises by the end of 2014“. The operator has also promised to release another batch of exchange upgrades “in the summer“.

It’s also worth reminding readers that BT’s FTTP service will be available “on demand” (FTTP on Demand) in all FTTC enabled areas by Spring 2013. This will be a premium product offering very fast speeds and will be aimed at small to medium businesses (not the mass market), although home users should be able to purchase related packages (expect them to be pricey).