11:40 AM -- Reaction to BT Group plc (NYSE: BT; London: BTA)'s announcement of a $3 billion investment in "super-fast broadband" has been trickling into EuroBlog, especially in relation to the number of homes that will get fiber all the way into their living rooms. (See BT Unveils $3B FTTx Plan and BT's Fiber Diet Fallout, Part II.)

It seems BT, which is concentrating its FTTH rollout in greenfield sites and deploying fiber-to-the-curb and VDSL2 in its existing broadband footprint, believes there will be enough new build opportunities for it to take fiber into 1 million homes by the beginning of 2013.

BT is still to come back to us about how, in the current economic downturn that is halting new house building projects, a whopping 1 million new homes are going to appear in the next five years, but with that number in the public domain, the fiber lovers are getting excited.

Joeri Van Bogaert, president of the FTTH Council Europe , welcomes BT's announcement, and sees it as another step toward the Council’s mission to have more than 12 million European homes connected to fiber access by 2012.

"One million lucky customers will have fibre connected directly to their home. At the FTTH Council Europe, we definitely see this decision as the most positive development, and a step in the right direction for the U.K.’s future," says Van Bogaert in an emailed statement.

Those 1 million homes will be very lucky if they get a fiber connection in the next five years, I reckon.

— Ray Le Maistre, International News Editor, Light Reading