BT says copper still has a role in fibre broadband network

BT's strategy, policy and portfolio director Sean Williams has said copper still has a role to play in supporting the telecoms giant's fibre optic broadband service.

Speaking at a Westminster eForum, Mr Williams confirmed the company will not be scrapping its copper infrastructure any time soon, reports ZDNet UK.

"There will be people who want copper telephony and not broadband," he remarked, adding the metal is a "permanent fixture" of the BT network.

Lucy Dimes, chief executive of Alcatel-Lucent UK and Ireland, claimed copper-based broadband speeds of more than 100Mbps could be achieved by utilising vectoring broadband technology.

BT currently makes use of copper in its fibre-to-the-cabinet offering, which provides download speeds of up to 40Mbps, with this figure set to rise to 80Mbps next year.

Some 88,000 customers signed up for the company's fibre broadband service in the three months to September 30th 2011, taking the total customer base to more than 300,000.