BT says UK does not need universal FTTP

There is no need for fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) broadband to be rolled out across the whole of the UK, according to BT's group strategy director Sean Williams.

Speaking to the House of Lords communications committee, Mr Williams claimed FTTP costs five times more to deploy than fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) technology, which utilises a combination of fibre optic and copper cables.

In addition, he insisted there is no business case to support universal FTTP coverage, reports ZDNet UK.

"Technological developments mean there is no need for it," the BT chief commented. "FTTC is a good solution for [the] medium and long term."

Mr Williams said FTTC is still "far from being at its limit", promising that BT will be able to use the technology to deliver much higher speeds in the future.

From this April, the telecoms giant has offered downstream speeds of up to 80Mbps via FTTC, double the previous headline capabilities offered by the service.

Upstream rates of 20Mbps are also supported by BT's FTTC proposition.