BT Unveil Antrim as First 330Mb G.fast Broadband Rollout Area for N.Ireland

None of the 17 initial pilot locations announced for BT’s pilot of 330Mbps capable G.fast (ITU G.9700/9701) broadband technology has included anywhere in Northern Ireland, but all that changed today after they confirmed that 4,000 premises in Antrim would benefit.

The current G.fast pilot has already made the service available to around 138,000 UK premises, with the vast majority being in England and only a few in Scotland and Wales. However a report in the Belfast Telegraph has said that the town of Antrim (we assume they mean the town since Antrim is also the name of a county) in the North-East of Northern Ireland has now joined the list, although only 4,000 premises will be added.

BT Ireland has also revealed that G.fast could then be expanded to cover 200,000 homes and businesses in N.Ireland by the end of 2020. The pilot is BT’s final step before they start a full commercial deployment, which will aim to reach 10 million UK premises by 2020 and then “most of the UK” by 2025. We think that “most” will probably equate to around 60% UK coverage (inc. FTTP) but this is not confirmed.

Mairead Meyer, BT N.Ireland’s MD of Networks, said:

“We are delighted to announce that parts of Antrim will be among the first locations in the UK to get ultrafast speeds using G.fast technology. We recently rolled out ultrafast in Newtownards and it proved very successful for local residents and we look forward to offering Antrim the same benefits.”

The technology works by running a fibre optic cable to your local PCP Street Cabinet, which is then extended in size via the addition of a new extension “pod” that houses the G.fast line cards. Properties that exist less than 350 metres from this cabinet (copper line distance) should be able to receive speeds of up to 330Mbps (50Mbps upload). A 160Mbps (30Mbps upload) option is also available. Generally you’ll need to be within 500 metres of the cabinet to stand a chance of getting the service.

Interestingly the announcement makes no mention of BT’s deployment in N.Ireland being part of a pilot, although we assume that it is since previous documents have suggested that the commercial roll-out probably won’t begin until the latter half of 2017 and we’re still waiting for the final product pricing to be confirmed (pilot prices). However this may also be due to the fact that Openreach doesn’t technically exist in N.Ireland (regulatory fun).

Funnily enough we recall that the County Antrim area was also one of the very first areas in the United Kingdom to test FTTC technology, all the way back in 2005.

UPDATE:

Confirmed that Antrim is indeed part of the G.fast pilot, as expected.