BT Openreach is to install fibre to the cabinet in Muswell Hill, London and Whitchurch, South Glamorgan next summer in a pilot project ahead of a full launch in 2010, it was confirmed today.

Openreach, a division of BT that manages the local telephone network, will begin a small technical trial of fibre to the cabinet on the Foxhall exchange in Suffolk early next year. It has already deployed fibre to the premises at Ebbsfleet.

Fibre to the cabinet replaces copper in the cabling that connects a cabinet serving a particular neighbourhood to the national network. A cabinet typically serves homes within one mile, which continue to connect to the cabinet with copper; however, the deeper provision of fibre will allow Openreach to offer broadband speed capability of up to 40Mbps, well in excess of the up to 24Mbps offered by ADSL2+.

"We are delighted to announce Whitchurch, South Glamorgan and Muswell Hill exchanges as the first sites chosen to pilot our fibre to the cabinet product," said David Campbell, director of next generation access at Openreach. "Services in these areas will be available to all UK communication providers on a wholesale basis. The sites were chosen in consultation with communications providers and took into account feedback from Regional Development Agencies, Devolved Authorities and similar organisations. It was also necessary to take into account current network topology and our ability to run testing procedures in the chosen areas. We have a good mix of areas, allowing us to test our products in both urban and semi-rural environments. These two sites were chosen from a shortlist and we expect to announce detailed plans for the initial market deployment of the Openreach product in early 2010, again following consultation with all interested parties."

The news comes as Virgin Media prepares to launch a new top tier of broadband service offering 50Mbps downstream.