Millions of homes are in line for a radical broadband improvement, with BT poised to approve a multibillion-pound investment to replace ageing telephone lines with state-of-the-art fibre optics. It is understood the telecoms giant plans to commit new cash to its Openreach network subsidiary following a board meeting this week. Sources said the company will initially commit to an extra one million homes within two years on top of the two million already committed. BT is also expect to back Openreach's ambition for millions more upgrades in the next few years, with caveats including simpler planning rules, lower business rates and less strict price caps on current services. It raised the issues as part of a meeting with the former Culture Secretary, Karen Bradley, in December. Her replacement Matt Hancock, promoted from Minister for Digital, has been a vocal advocate for more "full fibre" connections. Openreach has pressed its parent company for as much as £6bn to deliver faster and more reliable broadband to 10 million homes by 2025 and could look to go further as installation costs come down. It is understood its business case has also been bolstered by data proving there will be a sharp reduction in maintenance costs for full fibre compared with older copper lines.
UK telecom giant BT is set to approve plans by subsidiary Openreach to replace copper telephone lines with high-speed fibre optics, following a recent board meeting. Anonymous insiders said an additional million homes could be added to the two million already promised the upgrade. BT is also expected to offer support for millions more future upgrades so long as authorities streamline planning rules, reduce business rates and loosen price caps. Openreach also plans to push for £6bn ($8.5bn) of investment to bring faster broadband to 10 million homes by 2025.