Kensington and Chelsea back on track to a fibre future

DC13-095 27th March, 2013

Kensington and Chelsea back on track to a fibre future

Residents of Kensington and Chelsea are set to gain greater access to the latest generation of fibre broadband services, after agreement was reached between Openreach, BT's local network business, and officers from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea over the siting of the new cabinets which will provide the service.

Following joint site visits to all proposed locations, sites have now been found for 140 cabinets. Work has already begun at 72 of these locations, and 18 cabinets are already live. As a result of this and further deployment, over 50,000 residential and business premises in the borough stand to gain access to the latest fibre broadband services from a wide range of suppliers, as Openreach provides open access to its network to all Communications Providers.

Openreach confirmed that, following this agreement, South Kensington, Chelsea, Belgravia and Kensington Gardens exchanges will all be included in the company's roll-out of Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) technology.

Councillor Tim Ahern, the Royal Borough's Cabinet Member for Planning Policy, said: Fibre broadband will provide a major boost both for residents and businesses in the borough, so we're glad to have been able to reach an agreement with Openreach which allows for the deployment of this technology whilst safeguarding the historic integrity of the borough. We look forward to working with Openreach in a spirit of cooperation to maximise the benefits of fibre broadband across Kensington and Chelsea as soon as possible.

Liv Garfield, CEO, Openreach, said: The borough takes great care over its streetscape so deploying a new network in such an area can be a challenge for everyone involved, but the leadership of the borough have demonstrated a real desire over recent months to engage with us and ensure that their residents gain access to the exciting new products and services that fibre can provide. As a result we're delighted to be able to make progress on our plans for the area, and be working with RBKC in a collaborative way going forward.

BT's local network business Openreach is making fibre broadband available to around two-thirds of UK homes and businesses on a commercial basis by the end of Spring 2014 1using a mix of fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) and fibre to the premises (FTTP) technologies. More than 13 million premises can already access fibre broadband and that number is growing all the time.

Both technologies offer speeds many times faster than the current UK average, reported by the regulator Ofcom to be 12Mbps. FTTC, where fibre is delivered to new street cabinets, offers download speeds of up to 80Mbps and upload speeds of up to 20Mbps .

FTTP, where fibre runs all the way to homes and businesses, offers a variety of download speeds with the current top speed being 330Mbps 2. From Spring 2013 BT will start to make speeds of 330Mbps 2 commercially available in any area where fibre broadband has been deployed.

Internet users with a fibre broadband connection can do much more online, all at the same time. A family can download a movie, watch a TV replay service, surf the net and play games online simultaneously. A whole album can be downloaded in less than 30 seconds and a feature length HD movie in less than 10 minutes, whilst high-resolution photos can be uploaded to Facebook in seconds.

The upload speeds are the fastest widely available to consumers in the UK, with large video and data files being sent almost instantly and hi-resolution photos posted online in seconds. And high quality voice and video calls mean businesses can keep in touch with customers while they cut down on travel.

For further information on Openreach's fibre broadband programme visit www.superfast-openreach.co.uk

Ends

1 Due to the current network topography, and the economics of deployment, it is likely that some premises within selected exchange areas will not initially be able to access fibre-based broadband. Openreach is considering alternative solutions for these locations.

2 These are the download speeds offered at a wholesale level. It is up to individual communications providers to decide on the level of download speeds offered to consumers and businesses.

LINK:	http://www.btplc.com/News/Articles/Showarticle.cfm?ArticleID=39A0E28B-...
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