BT will offer 100Mbit/s broadband connections to 10,000 properties under construction on a new estate in Ebbsfleet, Kent from August this year.

Openreach, the carrier's local access arm, first announced the fibre to the home (FTTH) rollout to be delivered in conjunction with property development firm Land Securities early last year. But is has only now confirmed that it will offer bandwidths more than 10 times faster than current rates.

Current residential broadband connections from Openreach are based on copper cabling, which limits the speeds to 8Mbit/s at best, with up to 24Mbit/s scheduled for this Spring. Faster services offering up to 20Mbit/s based on fibre optic cables are available from Virgin broadband in certain UK regions.

Openreach will use the 100Mbit/s data rates to deliver high speed services such as multi-channel High Definition TV, internet gaming and instant music downloads. The company will also make its services available on a wholesale basis for other carriers to lease.