Super-fast broadband for Kent

BT will offer 100Mbit/s broadband connections to 10,000 properties under construction on a new estate in Ebbsfleet, Kent from August this year.

Openreach, the carrier's local access arm, first announced the fibre to the home (FTTH) rollout to be delivered in conjunction with property development firm Land Securities early last year. But is has only now confirmed that it will offer bandwidths more than 10 times faster than current rates.

Current residential broadband connections from Openreach are based on copper cabling, which limits the speeds to 8Mbit/s at best, with up to 24Mbit/s scheduled for this Spring. Faster services offering up to 20Mbit/s based on fibre optic cables are available from Virgin broadband in certain UK regions.

Openreach will use the 100Mbit/s data rates to deliver high speed services such as multi-channel High Definition TV, internet gaming and instant music downloads. The company will also make its services available on a wholesale basis for other carriers to lease.

See also:

Digital dividend could be worth £10bn

Possible uses of liberated bandwidth include high-definition TV and mobile broadband services  13 Dec 2007

Ofcom embraces next-generation networks

Upgrades to UK infrastructure will figure heavily in the regulator's policies for 2008  11 Dec 2007

BT fails to impress broadband users

Tiscali tops a customer satisfaction survey, while BT comes in last  07 Dec 2007

UK wants spectrum for mobile internet

The switchover bandwidth should be used for new broadband services, says Ofcom survey  28 Nov 2007

Government broadband summit today

Competitiveness minister Stephen Timms wants stakeholders to discuss bottlenecks to progress  26 Nov 2007

European broadband is speeding up

The average downstream connection is six per cent quicker at 5.5Mbit/s  27 Nov 2007

UK broadband to hit 21 million by 2012

But growth is slowing as high speed internet access becomes ubiquitous  20 Nov 2007

EU digital divide is widening

Access for all will be key plank of Commission's Telecoms Rules reforms to be tabled next month  16 Oct 2007

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