21CN puts BT home fibre on ice

BT's investment in its all-IP next-generation network -- known as the 21CN -- has hit its move towards fibre to the home (FTTH), a type of technology for delivering broadband that could supercharge the UK's Internet connections.

Speaking in London yesterday Neil Rogers, 21CN managing director, said that in spite of trialling fibre connectivity since 2004, BT is unlikely to take FTTH any further at the present time.

"It's something always under discussion," he said. "The more investment there is in 21CN, the likelihood of the debate resurfacing diminishes." Rogers added that while the industry continued to debate the merits of a switch to fibre, the telco has no plans to change its stance in the next couple of years.

Deployments of fibre have been slowly growing in the UK and Europe due to the faster, uniform connection speed it provides. Adoption, however, has been slow due to the costs associated with the technology.

Recent analyst reports put FTTH connections in western Europe at one million and overall penetration of the broadband market at 10 per cent.

Matt Beal, chief technology officer of BT Wholesale, said that any decision to deploy fibre has been put on ice by market rather than regulatory conditions.

"You have to be ready to pay for that investment. My shareholders are not a charity. It isn't a regulation issue, it's a market issue -- if no one wants to pay for [high-definition video] streams they're not going to magic themselves into people's homes."

In the meantime, despite adopting ADSL2+ broadband technology that promises a theoretical maximum of 24Mbps, Beale said that in trials most consumers have experienced speeds of between 12 and 8Mbps.

And a slight speed bump won't be the only change BT's customers will notice -- there will also be a move to self-service, with the telco hoping to emulate the online banking model where customers rather than bank staff take over the management of their accounts.

The resulting self-service model could result in redundancies, according to BT. However, the telco has no figures on how many people could be affected. "It depends on the level of take-up [of self service]... the first time we discuss people issues will be when we talk to the unions," Rogers said.