BT picks Deddington for FTTH broadband pilot program

BT says that Deddington, Oxfordshire will serve as the first pilot location for its fiber-only exchange program. The program is designed to test the benefits of fiber to the home (FTTH) technology. Regardless of the trial’s success, however, BT made it clear that FTTH “is a long term program given that copper-based services are expected to be available for many years yet.”

Openreach, BT’s local network division, will begin FTTH installation in Deddington this spring. Services, which should include downstream speeds between 40 and 300 Mbps, should be available sometime in 2013, BT predicts.

The villagers’s current copper-based network can only support maximum broadband speeds of around 6 to 8 Mbps, BT admits.

Deddington is a small rural exchange serving approximately 1,400 lines “and so is the ideal size for the pilot,” BT said in a press release.

Sean Williams, group strategy director, of BT said, “Fresh advances in technology are pushing the boundaries for new services on an almost daily basis. This is an important pilot which will help the industry better understand the opportunities arising from a fiber-only world in which traditional copper will be replaced by the super-fast capabilities of fiber-optic cable.”

Once the network is established and service providers have access to the FTTH network, which Openreach will run, BT will phase out its copper-based services in Deddington over a period of approximately two years.