UK: BT says it will accelerate deployment of "superfast" broadband

[ft] BT is to double the pace of the roll out of its superfast broadband network, the telecoms company announced on Thursday.

It is staking its future on persuading consumers and companies to buy high speed internet services from it.

BT said its superfast broadband network will run past 1m homes by March next year, in a move that will double the original pace of the deployment.

The network, based on optical fibre, will be available to 1.5m homes by early next summer, and 10m by 2012.

BT stressed it was not increasing its £1.5bn ($2.4bn) budget for the network. It will provide broadband download speeds of about 40 megabits per second, which is more than 10 times the industry average found by regulators last year.

It will be important for BT to secure wholesale fibre deals with rivals such as Carphone Warehouse and British Sky Broadcasting. BT’s share of the retail broadband market, at 27 per cent, is small by comparison to the former fixed line phone monopolies in many other European countries.

Ian Watt, analyst at Enders Analysis, said: “A more aggressive roll out by BT is likely to make the product more attractive both to BT Retail and, crucially, to others such as Carphone Warehouse and Sky.”

Steve Robertson, chief executive of BT Openreach, the subsidiary responsible for the new network, said: “We had aimed to get fibre to half a million homes by next March but we’re now being far more ambitious.”

Ian Livingston, BT chief executive, last month welcomed the government’s decision to subsidise the roll out of superfast broadband infrastructure to rural areas.

His first major announcement in July last year, after taking the top job at BT, was to outline plans for the high speed network.

BT to quicken rollout of superfast broadband