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LONDON (Alliance News) - BT Group PLC on Tuesday said it has begun its first field trial with its new ultrafast broadband technology, dubbed G.fast, in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire.
The technology has been in development since 2007, and underwent its first trial in 2013. G.fast is delivering speeds of up to 330 megabits per second, which BT said is "more than ten times the current UK average", and it is targeting speeds of up to 500 megabits per second "within a decade" as the technology is developed further.
Two thousand homes and businesses are expected to be covered by the trial in the coming weeks.
BT noted that if trials such as this one - further trials will be taking place in Gosforth, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Swansea from September - are successful and UK regulation "continues to encourage investment", BT's infrastructure division Openreach aims to start deploying G.fast in 2016 and 2017 with its fibre-to-the-cabinet and fibre-to-the-premises services.
"Today is the start of a new chapter in building Britain's connected future. This is the largest trial of G.fast technology in the world, and it builds on the pioneering research of BT's world-class R&D teams," said Chief Executive Officer of Openreach Joe Garner in a statement.
The trial comes as UK telecoms regulator Ofcom is considering the potential separation of Openreach from BT, amongst other options, as part of its ongoing strategic review of digital communications.
Competitors have called for the division to be separated from BT in the past over concerns surrounding the fairness of BT both running telecom services and controlling the infrastructure over which the services are run, with rival Sky PLC having said that there would likely be "significant net benefits from establishing Openreach as an independent company."
However, BT has argued that much of the progress in the UK broadband market has been due to BT investing in fibre. In July, when the regulator put the potential separation on the table, a spokesperson for the company said that its "ambitious plans for ultrafast broadband also depend on BT remaining intact."
By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews
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