Minister praises BT's fibre broadband rollout

Communications Minister Ed Vaizey has praised the rollout of fibre broadband by BT, after the network provider announced it had reached a new milestone in its delivery of the high-speed technology throughout the UK.

Earlier this week, BT revealed more than 19 million homes and businesses in the UK can now connect to the superfast broadband service thanks to its wide-reaching rollout programme, a target it has reached 21 months ahead of schedule.

Mr Vaizey commented: "Commercial operators like BT, with support from [the] government, are delivering one of the fastest rollouts of fibre in the world.

"These figures demonstrate that the government's aim to provide access to superfast speeds to 95 per cent of the UK by 2017 is well on track," he added.

Compared to elsewhere in Europe, the UK's fibre broadband coverage is currently at 73 per cent, while France's is only between 20 and 25 per cent.

The statistics mean that two-thirds of residential and commercial properties in Britain have the option to connect to fibre optic broadband through a variety of service providers if they wish.