Ho-hum.

BT broadband performance, for those of us who live south of the Forest Hill exchange at least, has improved by an average of 15% over recent weeks. It was interesting for a week or so where that improvement measured nearly 43% but only for a frustratingly short period of time.

The laying of BT fibre optic cable is now moving forward rapidly and whilst the March deadline has past, there is some optimism that the cable laying phase will be complete by May/June (2011). To counterbalace that, the required server equipment upgrade will not be complete until July 2011 - once step forward and two back.

Local information reliably has it that BT Openreach has altered the design of the cable infrastructure from being sutable for FTTC to FTTP (that means fibre optic cable being linked directly to all of our homes or business premises instead of just to the nearerst cabinet). This is good news for those of us who did not enjoy the benefits of the major non-BT cable laying works of the 1990's.

It is unclear, however, whether BT sees that sufficient demand exists for the take up of the Infinity product in the Forest Hill Exchange area. Rumours say that there is a demand threshold , below which BT will not activate the upgraded service. For clarity, this was originally rumoured to be only for the Infinity product that would provide the upto 40mbps speed but it may now also apply to the FTTP offering which provides upto100/110mbps.

Registration of your interest for these upgrades is possible for free on BT's website and does not commit you to taking up any offer - especially if the price is hiked. Once more it is rumoured that we will enjoy the benefits of these increases without a price increase - and allegedely the fair use policy will be abolished with the threat of speed throttling removed. Watch this space for further info on that aspect.

It is reliably understood that as part of the cable lay that has new fibre optic cable being laid close to all of our premises, the engineers will lay junction equipment at regular intervals that will provide links to 20-30 premise. It is less clear when tha last few metres of cable will be laid from thes manifold/junctions to our individual premises. You might guess that the final connection will be made when a customer confirms they want the service.

So - it can be perceived that there are benefits that for all Forest Hill Exchange broadband users, BT and non-BT, if we all register our interest and secure the highest speeds possible. You might think it strange that I say non-BT customers will benefit, but I think it evident that other ISP's will soon take advantage of the new improved service when BT switch it on.