Broadband Guide

BT exchange upgrades to 16Mb broadband

updated: Tuesday 10 April, 2012

By Editorial - news@consumerchoices.co.uk

Struggling with slow broadband speeds? Find out when your area will be upgraded to carry speeds of up to 16Mb.

If you’re stuck in the broadband slow lane, still struggling on speeds of sub-8Mb, help could soon be at hand.

Telephone exchanges serving more than 17.6 million homes and businesses have already been upgraded by BT broadband (www.BT.com) to offer speeds of up to 16Mb broadband.

And now, BT Openreach, which is responsible for maintaining and upgrading the UK’s copper wire telephone network, has announced plans to extend the “advanced copper network” to 90% of the UK, rather than the 80% originally planned.

This will bring faster speeds to an extra 2.5 million premises by the end of spring 2013 - many in rural areas currently struggling with slow broadband.

“The vast majority of customers can expect to enjoy faster speeds as a result of the upgrade with many seeing their speeds roughly double,” said BT Openreach when it announced the expansion in July 2011.

“Rural areas are set to benefit from the expansion plan. More than 400 of the additional 800 exchanges are located in rural areas. These 400 exchanges serve more than 900,000 premises.”

BT is also in the process of rolling out a superfast fibre broadband network that currently offers speeds of up to 40Mb broadband to two-thirds of the country by 2014 - though many rural areas will fall into the “final third” of the UK not included in this plan.

BT has named more than 400 of the telephone exchanges set to be upgraded to 16Mb, with more to be announced in coming months, though they are subject to change. They are sorted by region, so simply look for the area you live in and see if your local exchange is there.

• East Midlands
• East Of England
• North East England
• North West England
• Northern Ireland
• Scotland
• London and South East England
• South West England
• Wales
• West Midlands
• Yorkshire and the Humber

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