87 percent of London to have fibre broadband by Spring 2011
Tuesday 15 June 2010 10:39:32 by John Hunt

BT announced yesterday that Londoners are to benefit the most from the roll out of next-generation broadband using fibre technology that will deliver fast broadband speeds. 87% of the Greater London area, approximately 2 million homes and businesses, will be able to connect using fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) or fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) technology, 100,000 of which already have the service available.

"London is already one of the best connected cities in the world and our investment plan will ensure that it stays ahead of the pack. Our investment will see Londoners have access to both fibre and advanced copper broadband services well in advance of the London Olympics.

With BT as its official communications partner, London 2012 looks set to be the best connected Games yet. The infrastructure that we are putting in place will allow people to watch the event in high definition and engage with the Games using a range of exciting, interactive services. More importantly, the new broadband network will be a lasting legacy, enabling those living and work in London to prosper and the capital’s economy to thrive well into the future."

Ian Livingstone, (Chief Executive) BT Group

The new products which are becoming available offer speeds of up to 40Mbps where fibre-to-the-cabinet is deployed and up to 100Mbps where a full fibre (FTTH) solution is offered. As with existing ADSL/ADSL2+ technology, speeds are "up to" the maximum meaning users may see slower speeds than this depending on how far they live from the local telephone exchange. Many people may already be able to receive faster broadband from Virgin Media who offer broadband speeds of up to 50Mbps. The difference with Virgin's products is that speeds are not affected by distance from the exchange but congestion within the ISP and on the Internet (a problem that applies to all broadband providers).