Edinburgh to trial BT's FTTP on Demand

Edinburgh will be one of the first parts of the UK to gain access to a new ultra-fast fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) broadband service from BT.

The Scottish capital's Waverley exchange area will be one of eight across the UK to be involved in trials of BT's FTTP on Demand technology.

From this July, parts of south Bristol, High Wycombe and St Agnes in Cornwall will begin trialling the service, which offers download speeds of up to 330Mbps.

Edinburgh Waverley will enter the pilot scheme in September, followed in March 2013 by Basingstoke, Cardiff, Manchester Central and Watford. BT hopes to make FTTP on Demand commercially available from spring 2013.

Brendan Dick, director of BT Scotland, said: "This ultra-fast service can make a major contribution to the efficiency and competitiveness of local businesses and so play a major role in the future prosperity of Scotland."

The news comes in the same week that BT revealed a further 98 exchange areas will gain access to its fibre broadband service by late 2013.