One of the largest communication companies in the world and the UK's largest communications service provider BT Group will provide the next generation super-fast broadband access to 500,000 homes and businesses in six cities in the UK by 2010.

After identifying six locations in the UK where demand for super-fast broadband was the highest, BT zeroed in on Belfast, Cardiff, Edinbugh, Glasgow, London and Greater Manchester to provide to half a million homes and businesses internet users with broadband speeds of up to 60 Mbps from early 2010.

By planning to deliver broadband speed by nearly eight times faster than the current speed on its network, BT will spend £1.5 billion by 2012 and enhance the broadband speed up to 100 Mbps and provide it to 40 per cent or about 10 million of UK homes and businesses by 2012.

BT's local access division Openreach will use the FTTP technology to replace the existing copper wire and deploy fibre optic cable from BT's exchanges to cabinets at street corners at 29 exchanges across the UK.

The fibre optic cable will transform the speeds available even though the last link in the chain from the cabinet in the street to the premises will remain copper wire.

These speeds, using FTTP technology of fibre to the premise, are substantially ahead of any other residential service in the UK. Copper-based broadband services offering speeds of up to 24 Mbps are currently being used in 40 per cent of UK homes and business.

Currently in the UK, 24Mbps speed is supplied using the ADSL2+ technology, where the speed is dependent on the distance customers are from the local exchange as well as the condition of the circuit from their homes and the exchange.

But by laying fibre optic cables from the exchange to the cabinet in the street, higher and clearer frequencies will be available over vast distances and loss of speed on copper wire from the cabinet in the street to the house will be negligible as the distance is usually in metres rather than miles.

Before launching, BT will conduct trials of the next generation FTTC technology this summer in Muswell Hill, London and Whitchurch, Wales and ensure it is ready.

BT had nearly scrapped this roll out of super-fast broadband access as it felt that with the price restrictions imposed by the UK telecoms regulator Ofcom on BT charging other service providers in using their fibre optic network, the company would not be able to get a return on its investment.

BT's businesses come under special government regulation by Ofcom after it was found out that the telecom provider had significant market power in some markets following market surveys conducted by the regulator.

In these markets, BT is required to comply with additional obligations such as meeting reasonable requests to supply services and not to discriminate, but in information technology and broadband services, BT is less regulated.

But the regulator caved in last month to BT's demands, which made BT to go ahead with the roll out its super-fast broadband network and Steve Robertson CEO of Openreach said in a statement that, "The regulatory picture is complex and whilst Ofcom has given us a very welcome green light, we will require a few more over the coming months.''