BT’s Street Access goes live

BT’s Openreach division’s Street Access service has gone live. The service offers 100Mb/sec bandwidth connections from BT exchanges to the street.

The fibre cable connections go to lampposts and green telecoms cabinets. Although Street Access is not yet ready to provide an end-user service, it could eventually be used to provide high-speed networks to local homes and businesses.

Street Access offers 100Mb to the street to ISPs for approximately £3,350 a year for a 2.5km cable link and an additional £4,750 for installation. There is also an additional cost for renting in the BT exchange.

The service is designed to provide a cost-effective alternative to SDSL lines for businesses. It would work well in business parks and centres situated close to an exchange.

Street Access could also be used to run public information points, to provide remote telemetry such as traffic congestion monitoring, or to provide connectivity at large, public events such as music festivals.