Openreach to carry out first 'brownfield' FTTP trials

BT’s broadband wholesale arm Openreach is to start FTTP (fiber to the premises) trials in areas already using traditional copper technology.

The “brownfield” trials, as BT calls them, will begin in January 2010 in Bradwell Abbey in Milton Keynes and Highams Park, London .
 
The fiber access network will enable speeds of up to 100Mbps delivered to 20,000 homes and businesses in each area by next March. The trial products will be available to all UK communications providers on an open, wholesale basis, BT said.

Openreach is already delivering high-speed broadband to a greenfield housing development in Ebbsfleet Valley, Kent, enabling download speeds of up to 100Mbps using FTTP technology.

Openreach said the brownfield trials would “enhance its understanding of the performance of the technology and the economics involved” when rolling out fiber to premises in areas where copper is already deployed.
 
The trial forms part of BT’s plans to deliver fast broadband to 10 million premises by 2012, using a combination of FTTP and FTTC (fiber to the cabinet).