Belfast among the first to benefit from largest ever UK investment in super-fast Broadband

Super-fast speeds available to close to 30,000 customers in Balmoral Exchange area of Belfast

BT today took the next step on its broadband journey by revealing the first set of locations where, from early 2010, substantial numbers of customers will have access to fibre-based superfast broadband via BT's network.

The Balmoral exchange area of Belfast is one of 29 exchanges in the UK that has been selected in the first phase of the largest investment in superfast broadband ever seen in the UK. The company today announced that it will install fibre-based broadband in that exchange early next year as part of the £1.5 billion project.

The 'fibre to the cabinet' (FTTC) technology will offer initial speeds of up to 40Mb/s to nearly 30,000 households and businesses in the exchange area with the prospect of those rising to up to 60Mb/s. These speeds are more than ten times those experienced now by most UK households. The next phase of deployment will be announced in the Autumn.

Chris Clark, CEO, BT said:'Super-fast broadband is essential to Northern Ireland's future as a knowledge based economy so it is excellent to announce Balmoral exchange in this initial set of 29 locations. Once again, Northern Ireland is at the forefront of one of the most important projects to take place in recent years and this investment programme offers us the prospect of joining the world super league for broadband speeds.'

'The wider industry will now be able to plan ahead as we will be making our services available on a wholesale basis to other Communications Providers,' he added. The initial speeds of up to 40Mb/s will give customers enough speed to run multiple bandwidth-hungry applications. For example, some members of a family could be watching different HD movies while others were gaming or working on complex graphics or video projects.

As well as being able to download graphics and data much more quickly, users will benefit from substantially improved “upstream” speeds of up to 10Mb/s — the highest in the UK. Customers will be able to post videos, experience hi-definition video conferencing and enjoy interactive hi-definition gaming to the full.

This major investment in fibre forms part of BT's wider strategy of delivering next generation broadband services. Frank McManus, Head of Wholesale Service & Sales, BT said: 'Broadband has been a vital part of the success story of Northern Ireland. Businesses are using it to boost their competitiveness and find new customers, whilst households are benefiting from new entertainment and educational opportunities. But we are still only at the start of a very fast journey — a journey in which super-fast broadband will play an ever more important role.'

BT will install fibre between local exchanges and the street cabinets that sit between those exchanges and the premises served by them. The fibre will transform the speeds available even though the last link in the chain – from the street cabinet to the premise – will remain copper. BT is aware there are some premises that will not be able to be served by this technology and so they are currently looking at alternative solutions for those.