BT Openreach has revealed that the first pilots of its next generation 'Fibre to the Cabinet' (FTTC) broadband services, which will initially offer speeds of 'up to' 40Mbps, will take place at two exchanges in Muswell Hill (London) and Whitchurch (South Glamorgan) next summer.

Approximately 15,000 existing customer premises for each area will be involved. The pilots will follow a planned technical trial in the Foxhall exchange area of Kesgrave, Suffolk in early 2009, and the successful launch of the 'Fibre to the Premises' (FTTP) product at Ebbsfleet Valley in Kent earlier this year:


The move is part of BT's £1.5bn investment (original news), which aims to bring super-fast broadband to as many as 10 million homes by 2012. The first retail products are not expected to surface until sometime in 2010, although precise dates have yet to be determined.

For those unfamiliar with BT's plan; FTTC delivers a fast fibre optic link to the operators street level cabinets while the remaining connection, between cabinets and homes, is done using VDSL (similar to ADSL except faster over short distances). Speeds of between 10Mbps to 40Mbps (variable) can be expected.

The other method (FTTP) is for new builds and essentially brings the fibre optic cable right up to your doorstep, thus making speeds of 'up to' 100Mbps possible. It could even be pushed ‘up to’ 1Gbps in the more distant future. However cost issues mean that most existing homes and business should expect to see FTTC instead.