Issues surrounding the installation of Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband services for BT have resulted in delays to the official launch of the service.

The company is having difficulty with the delivery of its new 100 Mbps fibre optic broadband service, as engineers are taking up to two days in some areas to install the technology in a single home.

A report carried out by the Register revealed that a quarter of all installations were taking this excessive amount of time to complete, with the target set by BT being approximately two hours per home.

"FTTP is a complex technology which we are currently trialling at scale. We are pleased with how the trials are going, but have always been very clear that we will only launch it on a commercial basis once it has been fully tested and is ready for the market," a spokesperson for BT commented.

Another issue that has been holding back installation is the fact that five per cent of homeowners refused to allow workers to carry out installation work in their premises if they were not present.

However, another problem has emerged in the shape of blockages in the operator's cable ducts, leading to the need for heavy machinery to be brought onsite to resolve these issues.

Ian Lucas MP, Labour's shadow minister for industry and the digital economy, has called on internet service providers and the government to move faster to ensure the superfast network is up and running as soon as possible in the UK.

He commented: "This is a major national infrastructure issue like the road and rail networks and will define how well Britain can compete in the international market."

Mr Lucas argued that scheduled plans for the rollout of superfast broadband across the UK at present are insufficient to meet the country's needs.
 

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