BT Set Commercial 330Mbps Fibre Optic Broadband Launch for 2nd July

BTOpenreach, which manages access to BT’s national UK telecoms network, has confirmed that the full commercial launch of its “premium” ultrafast 330Mbps (Megabits per second) capable fibre optic (FTTP) broadband service will take place on 2nd July 2012, at which point it will be available for everybody to order (provided you’re one of the lucky few who can actually get it).

The full launch is not to be confused with BT’s Early Market Deployment on 11th June 2012, which is the last step before official commercial availability and doesn’t include the same “guaranteed service levels” as BT’s final product. The new 330Mbps service will also still have a similar maximum upload speed (20-30Mbps) as BT’s existing 100/110Mbps FTTP product.

It should be stressed that 330Mbps is extremely fast and contention is thus likely to be a problem on the more consumer focused packages. Like it or not, ISPs cannot easily provide full 330Mbps connectivity (1:1) to every customer without charging hundreds of pounds or more per connection each month. As a result most consumers, at least those covered by BT’s FTTP service, would perhaps be better off sticking with the 100-110Mbps package instead (do you really need more?).

BT’s FTTP service coverage is also extremely small and thus only a handful of UK ISPs, such as BT Retail and Zen Internet, offer related packages. This could improve next Spring 2013 when BT introduces FTTP-on-Demand and effectively makes the product available ALMOST anywhere that their slower FTTC service can already go (66% of the UK by 2014). But this is not expected to be cheap and is aimed more towards business users. Some extra detail can be found below.

BT Detail Prices for 330Mbps Fibre Optic Broadband
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2012/05/bt-detail-11th-june-uk-launch-and-prices-for-330mbps-fibre-optic-broadband.html

List of exchange areas where FTTP is available (now and in the future)
http://www.superfast-openreach.co.uk/where-and-when/