BT fibre rollout already covered by Virgin Media: UK will not benefit

Virgin Media has claimed that all 29 sites that BT are starting the fibre rollout are already covered by the cable provider. Virgin say that the UK will not benefit and the new fiber rollout from BT will do nothing to improve the broadband speeds in the UK.

BT revealed yesterday the list of exchanges that will be the first to get the new 40Mbits/sec fibre technology, 27 of the 29 are in urban areas. BT has been slow to upgrade its aging copper wire, which is how they supply broadband to most of the UK.

This latest announcement from BT will now provide some competition for Virgin, but this overlap in fiber cables means that Britain will not see the increase in speed. This new rollout will cover over 500,000 homes and businesses by 2010.

A spokesperson from BT has said “Remember, this is the only first set of locations,” the spokesperson added. “There will be more to come.”

The news that BT is to increase its price for broadband has to be what is helping to pay for the upgrade to fibre optic cables.

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