BT confirms January 2010 date for FTTC commercial launch

British fixed line incumbent BT has confirmed that the first official commercial rollout of its fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) broadband services will take place in January 2010, ISPreview reports. The telco says it expects to extend the service to approximately 1.5 million homes and businesses by the middle of next year, rising to ten million or more by 2012, and expects to invest around GBP1.5 billion (USD2.47 billion) on the deployment. No final pricing details have been revealed for the service, which will offer download speeds of up to 40Mbps, with uploads speeds expected to be between 10Mbps and 15Mbps. BT has previously released two separate lists detailing a total of 98 exchanges where the service will initially be rolled out, including Welsh capital Cardiff and two exchanges in the Scottish capital Edinburgh.