Broadband News
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Testing times for O2 and BT
02 Oct 2009 | 19.38 Europe/London
Mobile phone operator O2's just announced it's going to start trialling what's being billed as a 4G network - and it could reach speeds of 340Mbit/s. Meanwhile, BT's revealed its first fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) at a UK "brownfield" site. Both are slated to begin next year.
O2 is going to start testing Long Term Evolution technology in the UK, Germany, Spain, Argentina and the Czech Republic - and, in Britain at least, it's boldly going where no other network has gone before. But while the term "Long Term Evolution" sounds distinctly like something that belongs in sci-fi, it's in fact something more akin to Swindon - which is where mobile maker Motorola has conducted the only LTE tests in Britain to date. Although there's no word on the areas O2 will be running its trials as yet, with the its competitors Orange and Vodafone also indicating a LTE interest, it's unlikely tests of the technology will ultimately be so localised.
While we know what to expect from the dreaded "up to" prefix - and that is, of course, not much - LTE promises broadband speeds that are "up to" a fifty times faster than possible than those currently available. “We are working with the conviction that we can only offer our clients the maximum levels of quality and innovation," said Julio Linares, chief operating officer at O2's owners, Telefonica. "To do this, we are defining our strategy and the rollout of LTE with the objective of driving mobile broadband and offering the best service from the moment that the equipment and terminals can support the new standards and are available for sale."
However, BT's announcement could be more groundbreaking - in a literal sense at least. While it's already started FTTP trials in the "greenfield" area of Ebbsfleet Valley in Kent, it's now moving on to "brownfield" locations for the first time: Bradwell Abbey in Milton Keynes and Highams Park in London. (In this case, when it says "brownfield" the firm's talking about the premises that already have copper services; when it says "greenfield" it means premises that didn't have any previously existing communications infrastructure.) By March 2010, the aim is for 20,000 homes and businesses to have access to "up to" 100 Mbit/s broadband. And, because the firm's opening up the infrastructure on a wholesale basis, any ISP that wants to join the party.
“This trial is crucial for informing our plans to consider deploying FTTP alongside FTTC," said David Campbell, Managing Director of Next Generation Access, BT Openreach. "Our FTTP deployment in Ebbsfleet has allowed us to learn a great deal about rolling out fibre directly to homes in greenfield areas and we believe that the technology has huge potential for brownfield areas too." And he means potential - BT says FTTP could perhaps handle speeds of "up to" 1000 Mbit/s in the future.
And for those more interested in FTTC (fibre-to-the-cabinet) than FTTP, BT has also issued an update on that:-
Surely, these are testing times.
O2 is going to start testing Long Term Evolution technology in the UK, Germany, Spain, Argentina and the Czech Republic - and, in Britain at least, it's boldly going where no other network has gone before. But while the term "Long Term Evolution" sounds distinctly like something that belongs in sci-fi, it's in fact something more akin to Swindon - which is where mobile maker Motorola has conducted the only LTE tests in Britain to date. Although there's no word on the areas O2 will be running its trials as yet, with the its competitors Orange and Vodafone also indicating a LTE interest, it's unlikely tests of the technology will ultimately be so localised.
While we know what to expect from the dreaded "up to" prefix - and that is, of course, not much - LTE promises broadband speeds that are "up to" a fifty times faster than possible than those currently available. “We are working with the conviction that we can only offer our clients the maximum levels of quality and innovation," said Julio Linares, chief operating officer at O2's owners, Telefonica. "To do this, we are defining our strategy and the rollout of LTE with the objective of driving mobile broadband and offering the best service from the moment that the equipment and terminals can support the new standards and are available for sale."
However, BT's announcement could be more groundbreaking - in a literal sense at least. While it's already started FTTP trials in the "greenfield" area of Ebbsfleet Valley in Kent, it's now moving on to "brownfield" locations for the first time: Bradwell Abbey in Milton Keynes and Highams Park in London. (In this case, when it says "brownfield" the firm's talking about the premises that already have copper services; when it says "greenfield" it means premises that didn't have any previously existing communications infrastructure.) By March 2010, the aim is for 20,000 homes and businesses to have access to "up to" 100 Mbit/s broadband. And, because the firm's opening up the infrastructure on a wholesale basis, any ISP that wants to join the party.
“This trial is crucial for informing our plans to consider deploying FTTP alongside FTTC," said David Campbell, Managing Director of Next Generation Access, BT Openreach. "Our FTTP deployment in Ebbsfleet has allowed us to learn a great deal about rolling out fibre directly to homes in greenfield areas and we believe that the technology has huge potential for brownfield areas too." And he means potential - BT says FTTP could perhaps handle speeds of "up to" 1000 Mbit/s in the future.
And for those more interested in FTTC (fibre-to-the-cabinet) than FTTP, BT has also issued an update on that:-
To date, seven UK communications providers are actively placing orders and further communications providers are expected to join the pilot later this year. Over 200 end user customers have been connected to date across these two pilot locations, while Openreach expects to connect thousands of end user customers across the two pilot sites by the end of this year.
Following the pilot, BT will start to roll-out super-fast broadband services to 1.5 million premises as part of its initial deployment of the technology. The roll-out will commence in January 2010 with 1.5 million customers connected by Summer 2010.
Surely, these are testing times.