A group of reputable UK internet providers has called upon BT to offer greater clarity and information alongside its £2.5bn rollout of superfast 'up to' 40Mbps FTTC broadband ISP technology, which is expected to reach 66% of UK homes in 2015. At present consumers still have difficulty knowing whether or not they can receive the service - even after their telephone exchange has been "upgraded".

The situation came to light earlier this year after it was alleged that up to 60% of street cabinets were being been left off of BT's rollout map (here), at least in some areas. BT promptly clarified that this situation only affects a "handful of exchanges" and "in many of these cases this equates to actual coverage of up to 70 per cent of homes and businesses in an exchange area".

Part of the problem stems from the fact that BT doesn't provide any indication of how long it will take to deploy the service into local Street Cabinets or which cabinets will be excluded from the rollout. These issues appear to be a source of confusion for some who understandably expect to get FTTC, much like in the old days of ADSL broadband, just as soon as their exchange has been upgraded.



The recommendations surfaced as part of our new 'The First Year of Fttc Broadband' article, which looks back over the tech's first year of service, examines its early teething problems, real-world consumer performance and looks forward to what kind of improvements customers can expect in the future (e.g. faster speeds and the possibility of an engineer-free wires-only installation).

Several ISPs, including Zen Internet , AAISP , Entanet and IDNet have included their experiences. The article also reveals that many internet users may own broadband routers that simply cannot cope with the new service.

The First Year of Fttc Broadband
http://ispreview.co.uk/articles/11_First_Year_of_Superfast_FTTC_Broadband/