Following the activation of two pilot sites in London and Wales this week, BT have announced that they intend to upgrade 69 new telephone exchanges to support fibre infrastructure by next summer. This is part of a £1.5 bn spending plan to provide super fast broadband to 40% of UK properties by 2012.

The chosen exchanges are clustered around several high population ares of the country including, Essex, South East London, County Durham, Greater Manchester, South Wales and the West Midlands. The decision is seen as a move by BT to up the tempo of the proposed roll out of the new technology.