Posted: 19th Oct, 2011 By: MarkJ


Telecoms giant BT has today announced the completion of its
£3m effort to fast track the deployment of their latest "
fibre optic" based superfast broadband ISP services into the
Northern Ireland city of
Londonderry (
Derry), which will benefit some
40,000 homes and businesses in the area.
The work, which forms part of the operators
5-year partnership with Derry's
UK City of Culture 2013 team, means that BT's 'up to' 40Mbps capable (rising to 80Mbps in 2012)
Fibre-to-the-Cabinet ( FTTC ) technology is now available from 100% of street cabinets in
Derry City.
BT's Northern Ireland CEO, Colm O'Neill, told the BBC News:
"The vast majority of homes and businesses can avail of this but there are some for technical reasons that may have difficulty. We have a website where people can enter their telephone number and it will tell them if they have access."
BT's FTTC technology delivers a fast fibre optic link to the operator's street level cabinets, while the remaining connection (between cabinets and homes) is done using VDSL2 (similar to current ADSL broadband but faster over short distances) via existing copper cable.
The dependence upon VDSL and existing copper lines means that, even with total coverage, some homes will still
reside too far away to receive a service; future improvements could help that situation. It's also unclear how many premises have actually subscribed to BT's superfast service now that it's available (
low uptake has become an issue for BT in some areas).
Earlier this year BT revealed a significant new investment in Northern Ireland, which aims to raise the number of telephone lines connected up to its superfast broadband services from 54% to 88%. By
March 2012 BT hopes N.I. will have more fibre deployed than most major European countries aspire to roll-out by 2015.