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Mike Blackburn, BT's North West regional director

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9:32 am, March 17, 2010
Superfast broadband starts Greater Manchester roll-out

BT said today that about 100,000 homes and businesses in Greater Manchester will be among the first in the UK to benefit from a £1.5bn investment in super-fast broadband.

Work to upgrade the network serving Bury, Didsbury, Failsworth, Heaton Moor and Rusholme with fibre-based broadband will be largely completed over the next few weeks.

The upgrade will deliver download speeds of up to 40Mb/s - with the prospect of 60Mb/s in the future. Upstream speeds will also be faster, giving customers greater flexibility in how they use the internet and offering businesses major advantages, including new services and more sophisticated communications, such as high-quality videoconferencing.

BT cautioned that although the “great majority” of premises would have access, a minority will not initially be able to receive services due to a variety of technical and commercial reasons. BT said it as “actively looking at alternative solutions for these locations”.

In the coming months, exchanges in Altrincham, Ashton-Under-Lyne, Bramhall, Cheetham, Chorlton, Congleton, Denton, Hyde, Manchester East, Moss Side, Oldham, Prestwich, Stalybridge, Swinton, Urmston, Walkden, Willaston and Wilmslow – as well as Glossop in Derbyshire – will also be upgraded, covering a further 276,000 homes and businesses.

Mike Blackburn, BT's North West regional director, said: “Once again, the North West is at the forefront of the broadband revolution in the UK.

“The region's homes and businesses have already embraced broadband as an essential tool to live, work and play.

“The upgrading of the network and BT exchanges in Bury, Didsbury, Failsworth, Heaton Moor and Rusholme is the latest vital step in ensuring that the region benefits from exciting, leading-edge technology capable of delivering a wide range of innovative new applications, such as high definition (HD) video conferencing and 3D television over broadband.

“As BT's roll-out of super-fast broadband gathers pace, many more customers in other parts of the North West can expect to experience the benefits of the technology over the coming months and we will continue to work in partnership with public sector bodies to roll-out the technology to even more locations.”

The super-fast speeds enable members of a family to watch different high definition movies, while others are gaming or working on complex graphics or video projects. Music tracks could be downloaded in less than five seconds.

For businesses, the new network will enable services and applications such as cloud computing, faster back-up of computer systems and wider use of high quality videoconferencing.

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