BT offers 100Mbps fibre-based broadband

BT has promised to offer the UK's fastest residential broadband speeds at a housing and business development in Ebbsfleet Valley, Kent.

Speeds of up to 100Mbps will be available from August 2008 to the 10,000 homes and six million square feet of commercial space, thanks to the installation of a fibre-based network.

"This will allow multiple HDTV channels to be watched simultaneously, HDTV gaming and near instant music downloads," said BT in a statement.

BT currently provides around 120,000 businesses across the country with fibre connections.

Steve Robertson, chief executive at BT Openreach, said the Ebbsfleet network is the company's first deployment of fibre rather than copper to residential customers on a new site.

"It will enable communication providers to gauge what demand exists for very high speed broadband, and to assess what commercial models may be appropriate in the future," he said.

BT Openreach will offer its products in Ebbsfleet on a wholesale basis to all competing UK communication providers.

The telco claimed that it wants to make greater use of fibre in suitable new build sites in the future, although its current wholesale agreement with Ofcom covers only copper networks.

"This investment critically depends on an agreement with Ofcom which is currently engaged in consultation about how best to extend the regulatory framework to accommodate future fibre deployment," said BT.

"All current regulation is based on BT offering wholesale products over copper."

BT is also committed to increasing broadband speeds over copper, promising services of up to 24Mbps from Spring 2008.