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The exchanges at Muswell Hill in north London and Whitchurch in South Glamorgan will be the testbeds for BT's fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) services.

The trials will involve up to 15,000 people in each exchange, offering them broadband speeds of up to 40Mb/sec. The trials will begin next summer, and will follow a technical trial of FTTC in Kesgrave, Suffolk, early next year.

FTTC is the technology that BT plans to use for the vast majority of its planned £1.5 billion fibre rollout,

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which is set to reach 10 million homes by 2012.

The faster fibre-to-the-home (FTTH), which offers speeds of up to 100Mb/sec, is largely limited to new builds.

BT says it plans to let its partners participate in the trials. "Services in these areas will be available to all UK communication providers on a wholesale basis," says BT Openreach's director of next-generation access, David Campbell.

BT's choice of Whitchurch is also intended to show that the telecoms giant won't be ignoring those outside the major cities. "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."