Northern Ireland locations amongst the highest in the UK for fibre broadband uptake

More than 100,000 premises now using the service 

Belfast, Thursday 1st November 2012: BT has today revealed that many Northern Ireland locations, including Baillies Mills, Campsie, Castlereagh, Helen’s Bay and Dervock, are recording some of the best take-up figures for fibre broadband in the UK.

Northern Ireland is at the forefront of fibre broadband availability in Europe. The fibre roll-out has reached over 90% coverage of Northern Ireland and more than 100,000 premises are already using the high speed service, with residents and businesses in urban and rural areas seeing the benefits that fibre broadband can bring.

Frank McManus, BT’s Head of Wholesale Sales and Services, said, “Due to significant investment by BT and the public sector, Northern Ireland has a really strong advantage when it comes to the extent of the fibre broadband availability. And while there remain premises that are not yet connected to a fibre cabinet, 90% is a major achievement and we’d encourage citizens and businesses that are interested to visit www.nibroadband.com where they can check availability and find an operator that they’d like to order from.”

Other facts highlighted by BT to raise awareness of fibre broadband in Northern Ireland include:

- Northern Ireland currently has a greater percentage of premises passed by fibre than many European countries aspire to have by 2015

- One year ago Derry City became the first city in the UK and Ireland to put fibre to the cabinet technology in 100% of its street cabinets – and this is still the case today.

- Fibre broadband (fibre-to-the-cabinet technology) can currently deliver download speeds of up to 80Mbps and upload speeds of up to 20Mbps

- Twenty-two Internet Service Providers are currently selling fibre broadband in Northern Ireland, using BT’s open access network

- The premises furthest away from the exchange pose the greatest challenge both technically and commercially. BT is working with local communities, councils and government to investigate ways how the private sector can commercially justify the deployment of broadband even deeper and further into the countryside

For more information on availability, benefits, and internet service providers, visit www.nibroadband.com.


Ends

Editor’s Notes:

BT has made significant investments in network infrastructure in Northern Ireland, both direct and in partnership with the public sector. For example, the Next Generation Broadband Project is a pioneering initiative delivered on time and on budget by BT on behalf of the Department of Enterprise, Trade & Investment. BT initially invested close to £30 million in the initiative, with a further £16.5million coming from the Department of Enterprise Trade and Investment (DETI) and the EU under the ERDF Competitiveness Programme. Also £1.5 million has been invested from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) under the EU ERADF Rural Development Programme. This has since attracted a further investment from DARD, DETI and BT totalling some £4 million.