The UK phone company is itching to get into the glamourous world of television – it bid on the contract to televise Parliament and the Department of Trade & Industry has finally given the go-ahead for British Telecommunications Plc to start its construction of a number of trial optical fibre pipelines carrying telephone calls, stereo radio, television and various value-added services to 500 homes and businesses over a network to be situated in Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire (CI No 1,166). The UKP5m trial, for which British Telecom was granted a special licence by the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Industry and Consumer Affairs, Eric Forth, will be decisive in determining which of two optical fibre systems will form part British Telecom’s domestic and commercial communications system for the next century. One of the systems to be tested is the TPON Telephony Passive Optical Network operating over a series of inert fibre splitters, which will initially provide just speech and low-speed data services. Three versions will be tried out: single-line TPON giving a telephone service to up to 140 users on a time division basis, with the fibre network extending right up to the customers’ premises; a business variant for customers that need two to five exchange lines; and a street TPON, where the optical system hands over to traditional copper wires for the final connection. TPON will then be upgraded to a Broadband Passive Optical Network, BPON, to carry TV, radio and video library services. The alternative system will use the same technology incorporated in the Westminster Cable TV network designed by British Telecom: the Broadband Integrated Distributed Star – BIDS – is an active network based on electronic switches and will also provide TV, radio and telephony services. The licence for the trial runs until December 31 1992, with two industrial estates and six residential areas around Bishops Stortford under consideration.
