The sometimes controversial Chinese telecommunications solutions firm, Huawei, has strengthened its partnership with BT Openreach by providing a number of access products to aid deployment of the operators new national "super-fast" UK fibre optic broadband ISP network.

BT is investing £2.5bn so that 66% of the UK population can use its next generation internet access services by 2015. Presently this roll-out has been dominated by 'up to' 40Mb Fibre-to-the-Cabinet ( FTTC ) technology and will soon be joined by BT's 100Mb Fibre-to-the-Premises ( FTTH / P ) service.



BT and Huawei have been working together on FTTC solutions since 2008. The new deal will make use of Huawei's SingleFAN (fibre access network) solution, which uses an "open and unified platform" and should help BT to cut its operation and maintenance costs. The kit is also designed to support future multi-play services, such as bundled IPTV products, possibly even at the wholesale level.