BT today announced that another 34,000 homes and businesses in Scotland will have access to super-fast fibre broadband this year.
Edinburgh Donaldson exchange – serving parts of Murrayfield, Gorgie and Dalry – Broughty Ferry, Busby in Glasgow and Stirling are the latest exchange areas to benefit from BT’s £2.5 billion roll-out plans for super-fast broadband.
It will take the number of Scottish homes and businesses passed by the new super-fast network to more than 215,000.
Super-fast broadband, using ‘fibre to street cabinet’ technology (FTTC), offers much faster download speeds of up to 40Mbps, potentially rising to 60Mbps, and upstream speeds of 10Mbps, which could rise to 15Mbps in the future.
BT’s local network business Openreach expects to make super-fast fibre broadband available to two thirds of the UK by the end of 2015 in the biggest single investment in super-fast broadband ever undertaken in this country.
Brendan Dick, director of BT Scotland, said: “The roll-out of super-fast broadband across Scotland is continuing to gather momentum. More than 215,000 homes and businesses either already have access to super-fast broadband, or will be joining the revolution in the months ahead.
“At a time of difficult economic conditions super-fast broadband is being deployed in the UK at a faster pace than anywhere else in the world. BT is making one of the largest private sector investments in recent times and this is boosting the prosperity of Scotland as well as transforming the internet for businesses and households.
“We want to make super-fast broadband available as widely as possible, but beyond our current commercial roll-out plans there are locations where we will need to work with the public sector to install the technology. We welcome the opportunity to talk to organisations such as local authorities about ensuring their communities are able to benefit as fully as possible.”
Super-fast broadband benefits include users being able to send and receive large amounts of data much more quickly and efficiently and having the ability to run multiple bandwidth-hungry applications at the same time.
A music track can be downloaded in about two seconds, a whole music album in 30 seconds and a feature length HD movie in ten minutes. Upload speeds are the fastest in the UK, allowing large videos and data files to be sent almost instantly and activities, such as uploading hi-resolution photos to Facebook, to be completed in seconds.
Unlike other companies, Openreach will offer access to service providers on an open, wholesale basis, supporting a competitive market. Whilst the majority of homes and households in an upgraded area will be able to benefit from super-fast broadband, a minority will not initially be able to do so. BT will continue to work to find solutions for these remaining locations.
For further information on Openreach’s super-fast broadband programme, visit www.superfast-openreach.co.uk.
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