It’s been a funny week for Broadband Rollout Roundup. With rural broadband projects grinding to a halt as talks with BT and Fujitsu break down, there’s not been much word from the sticks in terms of BT-related rollout. In the smoke, there’s been less noise, though BT Openreach has made good on its plans to let other ISPs play with it’s 330Mbps FTTP lines. Though a milestone for next-gen broadband in the UK, it’s otherwise been a very quiet week.
On then with Broadband Rollout Roundup for 06/07/2012 – what little of it there is.
BT opens up 330Mbps FTTP fibre optic broadband to other ISPs
This week we saw BT Openreach inviting other commercial ISPs to lay cables all the way up to the doorstep.
BT’s 330Mbps Fibre to the Premises products are now available for other ISPs using the Openreach network to start selling super-fast broadband to their clients.
Available in just 15 locations in the UK, BT’s FTTP footprint is pretty small right now.
This is of course expected to grow upon completion of the live trials and the eventual launch of ‘FTTP on demand’ – where customers can pay to upgrade the last mile of their Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) line from semi-skimmed to full fat FTTP broadband.
Zen Internet to launch 330Mbps FTTP broadband
Not a rollout story per se, but Zen Internet was the first ISP to say upfront that it’d be carrying new 330Mbps services after the BT announcement.
Plusnet hinted at trials last week, but so far none of the other ISPs we’ve spoken to are keen to get on the 330Mbps bandwagon. For now…
Zen Ineternet’s Head of Product Management Andrew Saunders said: “We do intend to launch the new 330Mbps FTTP Fibre Optic Broadband services but currently don’t have a confirmed date.”
We will keep you posted on that date, as and when we hear it.
Tooway Direct launches up to 18Mbps speeds on satellite broadband
Tooway Direct was the first of the UK’s four Tooway broadband providers to announce that top download speeds available had increased to 18Mbps across the board.
As a result of upgrades made by Eutelsat, download speeds available across the Ka-band footprint have increased to a new maximum of 18Mbps with uploads also climbing to 6Mbps.
This should apply to all providers of Tooway from Bentley Walker to Tooway Direct and Tooway Broadband to Avonline to Broadband Wherever.
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