BT in sprint for fast broadband

British Telecommunications (BT) is accelerating the roll-out of its superfast broadband network to ensure the infrastructure is completed in time for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Britain's broadband speeds lag behind those of many industrialized countries and BT is under pressure from Labour and the Conservatives to fix the problem. The UK's largest fixed-line phone company is planning to spend £1.5bn on a new broadband network based on optical fibre, but it will run past only 40 per cent of homes, mainly in towns and cities. BT said last year it could take until March 2013 to build the urban-focused network, but, following successful trials, it now intends to finish it by June 2012. The Olympics start the following month. The new network will increase broadband download speeds 10-fold, to about 40 megabits per second, to cope with the rise of bandwidth-hungry services such as high-definition video.