BT Extends 20Mbps 21CN Broadband ISP Services to 92 Percent of the UK

BTWholesale, the wholesale division of national UK telecoms operator BT, has confirmed to ISPreview.co.uk that its up to 20Mbps (ADSL2+) capable 21CN based Wholesale Broadband Connect (WBC) platform will be extended beyond their current targets and into more rural areas to reach over 92% of the country.

At present BT’s WBC 21st Century Network, which is slowly replacing its older 20CN platform that only supports slower copper line ADSLMAX speeds of up to 8Mbps, is already available to over 85% of UK premises (i.e. 2549 “sites” / exchanges were live by the end of 2012) and they expect to bring it to 90% of the United Kingdom by spring 2013 (22.5 million premises).

In fact recent information from BT reveals that WBC will actually reach 91% of UK homes and businesses by spring 2013 and, once this is complete, BT will then proceed to enable an additional 195 sites and bring the total coverage to over 92% during summer 2013 (final locations have yet to be confirmed). At this stage a few percentage points can translate into a stronger geographic reach (i.e. fewer customers but over a bigger area).

On top of that BT are also investigating “further WBC expansion plans” for later in 2013 and into early 2014, although nothing has been confirmed and officially there are “no immediate plans“.. yet.

A BT Spokeswoman told ISPreview.co.uk:

“We are constantly reviewing our plans to see if we can further extend our advanced copper broadband network. There are no immediate plans to upgrade new exchanges beyond the 195 new sites.”

The development means that thousands more homes and businesses will soon be within reach of BT’s faster ADSL2+ capable platform, although as usual those premises that exist at the furthest reaches of their local telephone exchange are unlikely to see much benefit.

It’s similarly important not to confuse this with BT’s related roll-out of fibre optic based superfast broadband (FTTC etc.) services, which requires the 21CN platform but also needs significant additional investment and work at street cabinets before the service can go live (e.g. the installation of new fibre optic cable).

BT’s commercial FTTx deployment will only reach 66% of the UK by spring 2014, though it’s expected to hit 90% with public funding from the Broadband Delivery UK office (the FTTx roll-out will naturally follow BT’s 21CN footprint).

BTWholesale did recently publish a very grainy Ordnance Survey Map of their 21CN/WBC expansion plan, which we’ve pasted below. It’s worth pointing out that BT’s total 20CN and 21CN network combined claims to have reached over 99% of the UK, although the reality for broadband is usually a little more complicated.