BT Openreach Start LR-VDSL “Fibre Broadband” Trial on Lewis, Scotland

Openreach (BT) has revealed that the first field trial of their new Long Reach VDSL (FTTC) broadband technology will take place in the remote rural village of North Tolsta, which resides in the Scottish Outer Hebrides on the east side of the Isle of Lewis.

LR-VDSL is a modification of the existing VDSL2 based ‘up to’ 40-80Mbps capable Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) technology that Openreach uses for much of the country, except LR-VDSL can deliver faster speeds over longer runs of copper line from your local street cabinet (e.g. a 2km line might deliver around 9Mbps via normal VDSL2, while LR-VDSL could do 24Mbps+). Check out our new Technical Summary of LR-VDSL for more.

The technology is widely being seen as one potential solution for helping to meet the Government’s new 10Mbps Universal Service Obligation (USO), which is likely to focus on the final 2% of UK premises that may be unable to receive fixed line “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) speeds via the state aid fuelled Broadband Delivery UK programme.

So far Openreach has already conducted a technical Proof of Concept (PoC) trial with up to 200 lines, which took place in the rural village of Isfield (East Sussex, England). But they’re also in the process of launching an expanded trial “across a number of exchange areas,” although until now they’ve refused to give us any detail (BT probably want to milk the PR side a bit).

But the operator has now confirmed that one of the first field trials will take place with just 20 houses in the tiny village of North Tolsta (Isle of Lewis) and, if successful, BT will leave the service enabled for the community to use for as long as they want.

Clive Selley, CEO of Openreach, said:

“Early results are very positive. Getting faster speeds to rural communities is one of my biggest priorities, so testing new solutions in the field like this is a crucial part of that process.

This is a British innovation story, and our world class labs are pioneering a technology which could improve speeds for thousands of homes and businesses across Scotland and the rest of the UK – particularly those connected by long lines that are between 2.5km and 3.5km away from the cabinet.

Our lab tests prove that Long Reach VDSL has the potential to significantly boost speeds over such lines, which are typically found in remote parts of the UK.

This trial will provide engineers with more information on how the new technology works in one of the UK’s remotest locations.”

Mind you LR-VDSL, which will offer a maximum peak theoretical download speed of 40Mbps (10Mbps upload), isn’t a perfect solution and it works best if the older and slower ADSL based connections are disabled first. However this approach could create some problems and confusion for consumers, which is of course precisely why such trials are so vital.

The reason for testing in North Tolsta is precisely because it’s such a remote location and the fact that the local Street Cabinet caters for a good sized cluster of long copper lines. Apparently most homes have already received a significant speed boost from the trial.

Earlier this week BT told Ofcom’s on-going USO consultation that it was able to deliver 10Mbps coverage universally, albeit only on a voluntary commercial basis and as part of a NON-binding Universal Service Commitment (here) rather than a legally-binding USO. BT also called for Ofcom to maintain a relaxed level of regulation and FTTC pricing.

Meanwhile the former Digital Economy Minister, Ed Vaizey MP, has said that BT could deliver the USO “without a subsidy from the government … so in effect you are potentially left with 600,000 customers and I think BT can afford to and is willing to make that investment.” Vaizey also indicated that Ofcom should agree to some of BT’s demands in order to secure their support, although he wasn’t specific about which demands.