BT chief Ian Livingston claims fiber broadband offering download rates of 100Mbps could be rolled out to 90% of UK homes over the next six years.
Investment in fiber is crucial to boosting overall broadband access speeds in the country, and will help to cut the number of homes restricted to a maximum of 2Mbps from around 12% of homes currently to less than 2%, Livingston told UK prime minister David Cameron and government ministers yesterday.
The BT boss predicts the UK will become one of Europe’s leading lights in high-speed broadband, thanks to a combination of the telco’s investment and government funding. The UK has allocated £530 million (€618 million) of public money to boost rural broadband deployments, and last week detailed a £100 million pot to create ten high-speed urban hotspots.
“Super-fast broadband can be a catalyst for economic growth,” Livingston says, adding “The government has been a great supporter in recognizing that this type of infrastructure investment can drive the UK’s long term growth.”