How much FTTH in the UK?
10 June 2009
The Community Broadband Network has been organising a series of regional conferences throughout England to discuss the prospects for next generation access (NGA) or super fast broadband which is usually assumed to require either fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) or fibre to the home (FTTH). The sixth and last of these events will be held in Manchester on 23 June. On behalf of the Commuications Consumer Panel, I will have addressed four of these conferences which have identified considerable frustration at the roll-out of NGA in this country and a desire to promote local schemes.
The Fiber to the Home Council - a worldwide organisation - has identified 20 countries in the world where FTTH connections exceed 1% of homes. As the CBN events have underlined, the UK does not begin to figure in this league.
So how many FTTH connections are there in Britain today? At the CBN events, CBN Chairman Malcolm Corbett has joked that FTTH roll-out by BT is so slow that CBN projects now account for more FTTH connections that those of BT. Is this true? Just how many FTTH connections do we have in this country and is BT behind CBN?
The most advanced CBN project is at West Whitlawburn in Scotland which currently has around 60 live fibre connections. Some 40 of the properties have tenants and another 10 are scheduled to move in during the next week or so. BT's 'showcase' FTTH site is at Ebbsfleet (which I have visited), where the recession has slowed down developments considerably, and fibre connections are still only a little over 50.
Prior to its two local trials in Muswell Hill, London and Whitchurch, South Glamorgan, Openreach will has started a technical trial in the Foxhall exchange area of Kesgrave, Suffolk, but all three of these trials are fibre to the cabinet (FTTC).
So it seems that currently the UK has merely around 100 FTTH connections in use by consumers with BT and CBN pretty much neck-and-neck.
However, there is underway a BT/industry consultation on fibre to the premise (FTTP) on brownfield sites. BT plans to start trials between January and March 2010, giving FTTP potential coverage of up to around 5,000 - 40,000 premises passed, subject to interest from communications providers.