The telecoms giant BT has announced that it will be upgrading the broadband exchange in Locks Heath by the end of summer 2010 as part of its £1.5 billion plans for super-fast fibre-based broadband across the South and South East.
Mike Galvin, BT's South East regional director, said: "Broadband has already made a huge contribution to the prosperity of the South East - transforming the way many of us live and work and increasing the competitiveness of the region's businesses - and it will become even more important in the years ahead.
"We are continuing to work closely with regional authorities, agencies and partners across the region to make sure that the South East remains at the cutting edge of broadband development in a world in which the internet grows ever more essential."
The Locks Heath exchange covers approximately 15,412 residential premises and 799 non-residential premises. It currently carries BT’s initial broadband offering of ADSL – i.e. via copper cables only, and provides theoretical speeds of up to 8Mb/s. Broadband speeds, however, depend on how long the cables to the property are and how many others are using the lines at the time. The bit rate can also vary depending on which service provider you are with. For example, Be Unlimited (who were enabled in Locks Heath on 12th January this year) has a 24Mb/s (theoretically!).
BT will be upgrading the Locks Heath Exchange to a 'Fibre to the Cabinet' (FTTC) system. This is a solution that uses fibre optic cables from the exchange to the street cabinet, with the remainder of the connection - from the cabinet to the business premises or home – consisting of copper wiring. This combination of optical fibre and copper can be used to support super-fast broadband with theoretical downstream speeds of up to 40Mb/s initially (although 20-30Mb/s is more common), potentially rising to 60Mb/s in the future. Initial upstream speeds will be between 5 and 10Mb/s, possibly rising to 15Mb/s.
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Last Updated on Tuesday, 03 January 2012 14:34
