Fibre pilots could help VoIP solution efficiency

Trials in fibre optic networks being held in north London and Cardiff could help improve the efficiency of VoIP solutions and facilitate better download speeds.

Beginning this week, selected homes are receiving high-speed broadband connections from major internet service provider (ISP) BT, while the company is also expected to announce more fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) telephone exchanges to help make the technology more widely available.

The faster speeds are to be provided through BT's 21st Century Network and ISPs such as Sky and O2 are involved in the initial trials.

Liv Garfield, strategy director for BT, said: "Both pilots will involve over 15,000 premises with over 100 street cabinets being FTTC-enabled."

Nearly 30 telephone exchanges will be fitted with FTTC technology between now and early 2010 to enable more web users to benefit from faster speeds.

Virgin Media is one of BT's principal rivals in the development of next-generation broadband networks, as the firm recently launched a 50 megabits-per-second service and has plans to deliver even faster connections in the near future.