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Openreach unveils 156 more exchanges set for fibre broadband upgrades
The programme of infrastructure upgrades will benefit more than 1.5 million homes and businesses.
The telecoms giant's local access network business said the majority are set to be fibre-enabled by the end of 2011, with the organisation planning to complete work at over 50 of these sites by the end of this summer.
Any exchanges not improved in these initial phases will begin offering next-generation broadband before the start of 2013.
Openreach is aiming to give more specific dates on when each individual area will get access to fast internet connections six months prior to the work being finished.
Among the locations included in the latest round of fibre broadband rollouts are the ten rural towns and villages that won BT's Race to Infinity challenge. The initiative, which ran at the end of last year, aimed to track down the communities in the UK with the highest levels of demand for super-fast web services.
More than 360,000 votes were cast, prompting the company to declare ten locations as winners, rather than the five that it originally planned.
Baschurch in Shropshire, Blewbury in Oxfordshire, Caxton and Madingley in Cambridgeshire, Innerleithen in the Scottish Borders and the Hampshire village of Whitchurch were among the areas that received the highest number of votes per property.
The products that will be deployed are a combination of fibre to the cabinet - offering download speeds of up to 40Mbps - and fibre to the home, which has a maximum capability of 100Mbps.
David Campbell, managing director of next-generation access at Openreach, said: "Our fibre programme is well underway with more than four million premises now able to order a fibre-based broadband service from their chosen supplier.
"We'll continue to work closely with industry and local and devolved authorities around the country in deciding where to deploy the technology next."