BT announces apartment block fibre broadband trial

BT is set to launch a pilot scheme that will test its fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband service in around 1,000 apartment blocks.

Residents living and landlords who own properties in these buildings are being urged by Openreach, BT's local access network business, to register their interest in the project.

Speeds of up to 100Mbps are currently offered by the telecoms giant's FTTH fibre optic broadband product, but this figure will rise to 300Mbps by this spring.

Openreach's managing director for next-generation access Mike Galvin said the company's registration scheme has illustrated high levels of demand among consumers for fibre broadband connectivity.

"They now seek these higher speeds and see the provision of super-fast broadband as a significant benefit," he commented.

Demand from subscribers is being factored into BT's future rollout plans, Mr Galvin added.

In the three months to September 30th 2011, BT saw the customer base of its Infinity fibre broadband product range increase by 88,000, taking the total number of subscribers to more than 300,000.