British telecoms giant BT has revealed some good news today as it announced that its roll-out of fibre-optic broadband will be completed a year earlier than expected.
BT will look to bring forward £300 million worth of investment and employ 520 new engineers to achieve its target of 2014 instead of 2015.
The roll-out of new fibre-optic broadband is part of BT’s £2.5 billion program to provide the UK with faster broadband.
Six million UK households and premises have already got access to the new super-fast technology, and that figure is expected to rise to 10 million by 2012.
The new technology allows for download speeds of up to 40 megabytes per second, which is fast enough to allow users to stream high definition television over the internet.
According to BT, the new program is the largest single commercial investment ever undertaken by BT and is one of the largest civil engineering projects currently in operation.
Ian Livingstone, BT chief executive, added: “Our roll-out of fibre broadband is one of the fastest in the world and so it is great to be ahead of what was an already challenging schedule.”
The company also plans to apply for grants totaling £530 million to take the technology into rural areas where broadband is well below the national average.
BT have stated that if they do receive all contracts and grants, it plans to plough a further £1 billion into the project as well, and this would mean 90% of the country could receive superfaster broadband.
Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport said: “Superfast broadband is essential for achieving sustainable growth and it is vital that homes and businesses have access to it as soon as possible.”
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