BT Rolls Out FTTP In London’s West End

BT has rolled out Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) broadband to around 3,000 homes and businesses in Mayfair, situated in London’s West End.

The expansion marks one of the first areas of the country where the latest FTTP technology, which uses micro cables, has been used.

‘Minimise disruption’

Micro cables are small diameter cables designed to fit through busy underground ducts, minimising costs and disruptive engineer work.

“This in turn makes deployment much quicker and enables FTTP to be available to more customers. It’s the first time that we’ve used micro cables in the West End,” said Openreach chief engineer Andrew Whale.

“It’s great to see the latest Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) technology being deployed using the new methods we have developed recently.”

Openreach recently announced it will make fibre available for a further 360,000 homes and businesses in London in the next two years. The rollout will take availability of fibre optic services for London homes and small businesses beyond the current 94 per cent coverage.

The high-speed network installed by Openreach is available on an open, wholesale basis to all companies offering fibre broadband services so local households and businesses can benefit from competitive pricing and products, claims Openreach.

Ultrafast FTTP broadband gives users the ability to run multiple bandwidth-intense applications at the same time such as sending and receiving large amounts of data much more quickly and efficiently.

Mayfair’s Councillor Glanz helped an Openreach engineer, John Hilliard, ‘splice’ fibre optic cable in Clifford Street, and discussed how the technology works and the opportunities it offers for Mayfair’s economic future.

Glanz said: “I am delighted that this new way of bringing fibre to the premises is being piloted in the West End and hope that it can be extended throughout the central area of Westminster to allow residents and businesses cost-effective access to ultra-fast broadband which they have long craved.”

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