BT Group intends to make high-speed broadband internet services available to 90% of the UK population by the summer, as part of its plan to achieve total coverage by 2005.
Pierre Danon, chief executive of BT Retail, says the telecoms giant will have invested £22 million by next year in setting up public private partnerships to roll out broadband in less densely populated area.
“BT is absolutely committed to reaching our target of connecting every UK community, even the remote or rural ones, by 2005. But this summer we will have reached 90 per cent coverage by using a range of partnership models, which have already delivered 35 successful schemes across the UK,” said Danon.
The company intends to fill the remaining 10% population coverage gap using radio broadband technologies. These will be targeted towards exchanges in rural areas where low demand is unlikely to justify investment in fixed-line broadband services.
Danon said that BT had been testing radio broadband in rural areas and had found that download speeds were at least comparable to those achieved by fixed line broadband services. In some cases they were found to be twice as fast as conventional broadband.
The telecoms operator stressed that the deployment of radio broadband would require partnerships with regional development agencies or other public sector partners to help fund the higher costs of installing the technology.
BT recently announced plans to introduce broadband technology in a further 2,300 exchanges when demand reaches a specially determined trigger levels. The move will provide a further 2 million homes and businesses with high-speed internet access and should help Broadband Britain become a reality (see BT Targets 100% Broadband By 2005).
Last month the Government revealed proposals to set wide-ranging new targets for the take-up of high-speed internet services following warnings that it cannot afford to be complacent in its drive towards enabling a broadband Britain.
The Broadband Stakeholder Group published a report urging the Government not to relax its push to get consumers online once the current target of making the UK the most advanced broadband market among G7 nations expires next year (see Government To Set New Targets For Broadband Britain).
