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BT PRAISES CAMPAIGN GROUPS AS BROADBAND DEMAND TAKES OFFBT today announced that customers on 10 exchanges are set to experience the benefits of broadband, the first successes of an innovative demand registration scheme. Ben Verwaayen, BT chief executive, said: "It's terrific that customers have come together in campaign groups to drive demand in their areas. We can now identify with confidence where to invest next to give businesses and consumers fast, always on broadband internet services." Todmorden, West Yorkshire, was the first exchange to hit its demand trigger level set under BT Wholesale's broadband registration scheme - and now after a six week validation period, service providers have confirmed sufficient customer demand for the exchange to be upgraded. Work at the exchange and on BT's network is now underway and the first customers will get broadband service in November. Six further exchanges, Irby on the Wirrall, Paddock Wood and Pembury in Kent, Penn in Buckinghamshire, Ponteland in Northumberland and Twyford in Berkshire will also now be upgraded after demand was confirmed by service providers. They are expected to go live in December. Tom Byrne, campaign founder and area co-ordinator for the broadband4irby campaign, said: "The Irby campaign proves local people can make the difference in delivering the broadband future. The campaign team's work helped us reach the 400 trigger level in 11 weeks and now the demand needed to make sure we get broadband has been confirmed in just four weeks. "The effort by all our team has been fantastic and the news that Irby will be one of the first exchanges upgraded by BT under this scheme has made all the effort worthwhile." Mr Verwaayen said: "People in these areas put themselves in the vanguard of the movement to be the next to get ADSL broadband. BT is now pulling out all the stops to match their enthusiasm and deliver the broadband connections they've asked for. "For the next exchanges service providers have confirmed demand levels faster, so broadband conversion work can begin immediately. This speed gives us increasing confidence in our new registration scheme and our ability to predict accurately the level of interest we need to make broadband upgrades economically sound." Since the demand registration scheme was launched in July more than 160,000 customer registrations have been logged. In addition to the seven exchanges where demand levels have been confirmed, a further three exchanges Leek in Staffordshire, Bishops Waltham in Hampshire and Kesgrave in Suffolk, are just a handful of confirmations short and are expected to be confirmed in the broadband upgrade programme later this week. There are a further 10 exchanges which have hit their trigger levels and service providers are now validating demand so work can begin on upgrading further exchanges. Notes to Editors
Anybody wanting to sign up for ADSL broadband services should register through a service provider who will in turn feed numbers into a central BT Wholesale database. Details of all ADSL service providers and a list of those taking part in the registration scheme are available at www.bt.com/broadband which has links to the service providers' web-sites. To date more than 66 per cent of UK households are served by the 1119 exchanges BT has already upgraded to provide ADSL broadband. Those exchanges which have hit the trigger level and demand is being validated are: Alton, Hampshire © BT Group plc 2002 Taken from BT Media Centre Press Releases |
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