Friday, January 11, 2008

BT Upgrading Access Network

BT is now installing ADSL-2+ in its access network and plans to offer a 24 Mbps service in 1H08. BT is also deploying Huawei GPON systems to support a greenfield FTTH service in a new development in the Southeast of England. This development is planned to grow to 10 thousand homes over the next 25 years.

BT will offer wholesale access to this FTTH network with a service at 10 Mbps downstream and 2 Mbps upstream. 30 Mbps downstream and 100 Mbps downstream services will also be available.

BT is not planning a fiber overbuild at this time because it does not believe that this investment will produce adequate returns.

BT has been slow to upgrade its access network. The rest of Europe started moving to ADSL-2+ two years ago. The introduction of HDTV by satellite and digital terrestrial will put pressure for more bandwidth on the BT Vision IPTV service. ADSL-2+ will be an answer for those users close enough to get at least 15 Mbps, but fiber will be required in the long run.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Look Einstein, BT is -not- going to pay for the multi-billion dollar network upgrade ($800M is VERY low ball compared to the figures Ive seen..!), and for very good reasons....

BT paid for installing copper to every home in the country (or rather we, the taxpayer did through BT, which became BT the company..!).

They then got a 10-20 year return on that investement through line and call charges.

Then along came deregulation...
which was greast for Joe consumer, but not so great for BT...

So let me ask again the obvious question...why on early would you spend billions of your money on building a network that everyone else could access for free from day one, undercutting the billions youd just invested into the last mile.

Oftel can threaten and jump all they like, but it simple doesnt make ecconomic sense (particularly with the UK's low-density out of city population, and high Satellite penetration..).

We need a new business model, either a 3rd party owns (and charges for) the new network - as is the case in many countries, or you get BT to do the same...

Otherwise dont expect fibre to your house anytime soon folks...
It simply does'nt make [business] sense...