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By Graeme Wearden, 25 February 2003 11:13

NEWS BT announced on Monday that a further 20 local exchanges have been added to its broadband rollout programme after hitting their pre-registration trigger levels. ADSL should be available from each of the local exchanges by the end of May at the latest. In each case, sufficient local residents registered interest in getting broadband - via BT's registration scheme - to persuade the telco that it was commercially viable to upgrade the local exchange Three exchanges - Brixworth, Goole, and Sleaford - have been given an activation date of 7 May. Newtown, New Mills, Halstead, Thirsk, Alresford, Liphook, Horsely Fields and Galashiels should all be activated by 14 May. North Shore, Totnes, Wargrave, Oakham, Headley Down, Southwell, Tavistock and Irvine Oldtown are all pencilled in for 21 May, with the Loose exchange of Kent bringing up the rear with an activation date of 28 May. The highest trigger level achieved was Newtown's 450 broadband pre-registrations. These latest 20 exchanges takes to 158 the number that have hit their trigger levels since the broadband registration scheme was launched - of which 23 are already upgraded and offering ADSL. According to a BT Wholesale spokesman, a further 25 exchanges are within 10 percent of their trigger level and are expected to reach it "in the near future".