BT is to invest £1.5 billion rolling out a new fibre network that will deliver super-fast internet access to ten million homes within four years.
The telecoms giant said that the network would reach 40 per cent of homes by 2012, and that a million households will have an even faster service, with fibre-optic cables all the way to their homes.
The fastest speed offered by the new network will be 100 megabits per second (Mbps) – more than 30 times the average speed most customers experience on an 8Mbps broadband package. Other homes could expect speeds of between 40 and 60mps, BT said.
BT said it would only go ahead with the project if the regulator Ofcom allowed it to get a good return on the investment. Ian Livingston, the chief executive, said the company would pay for new network by suspending a £2.5 billion share buyback programme.
“We now want to make a step-change in broadband provision which will offer faster speeds than ever before,” Mr Livingston said in a statement. “This marks the beginning of a new chapter in Britain’s broadband story.”
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