BT bringing fibre broadband to 51,000 Greater Manchester properties

Fibre optic broadband will be available to tens of thousands more properties in Greater Manchester over the coming months, BT has announced.

More than 51,000 homes and businesses in the metropolitan county have been included in the telecoms giant's latest rollout announcement, while around 145,000 premises throughout the north-west as a whole will be connected.

BT expects the programme of infrastructure upgrades to be conducted throughout this year and into 2012.

Once the work has been completed, more than 1.43 million properties in 166 north-west communities will be able to sign up for the organisation's fibre broadband service.

Mike Blackburn, BT's director for the region, said: "It's great news that more homes and businesses in the north-west are joining the world's fastest growing fibre optic network."

Over 16,000 households and business premises in the Lancashire town of Morecambe are also set to be hooked up to the company's super-fast broadband infrastructure as part of the deployment.