Basingstoke to benefit from FTTC roll-out

Residents and businesses in the town of Basingstoke are to benefit from faster broadband speeds as BT plans to roll out a fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) network.

Nearly 80 cabinets are to be installed by the major internet service provider and more than 27,000 homes will receive faster broadband speeds when fibre optic cabling running to the cabinets connects to each user's pre-existing copper wiring.

Connection speeds are guaranteed at 15 megabits per second (Mbps) and could be as high as 40Mbps, enabling users to watch media content in high definition and also possibly encouraging more people to use VoIP solutions.

Councillor Keith Chapman, the cabinet member responsible for information technology and telecommunications, said: "We've been working to address 'not spots' - people who cannot get broadband at all. Some of these residents could go straight from 'no performance' to 'high performance'."

BT is also trialling fibre-to-the-premises technology, which bypasses pre-existing copper wiring networks to enable users to benefit from fibre cables directly.