UK ISP BT Retail to Launch 300Mbps FTTP Broadband Package

The consumer division of BT has confirmed that it will shortly launch a new BTInfinity 300 ultrafast broadband package using Openreach’s fastest Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) product, which will offer download speeds of up to 300Mbps (20Mbps uploads) from £50 a month.

The new product has been mooted for a while, although other ISPs have balked at the idea of launching such a service due to the potentially significant additional capacity costs that it could attract. On top of that the native FTTP service only has a tiny coverage and, according to Recombu, has now been enabled at just 159 UK telephone exchanges (around 100,000 premises covered).

However BT itself states that the new 300Mbps service will “initially be available” within 50 exchange areas where FTTP infrastructure has been deployed to date.

At present BT’s top FTTP based Infinity package offers speeds of up to 160Mbps (launch details), which costs £35 inc. VAT per month and includes unlimited usage plus all of BT’s usual bits and bobs (unlimited BTWifi hotspot access, internet security etc.). But you’d be hard pressed to find this FTTP service listed on their summary of consumer products anymore, it seems to be hiding.

David McDonald, BT’s GM for Consumer Broadband, said:

“Right now if you called BT’s sale team or looked online the fastest speeds available will be 160Mbps. We’re upgrading this service to give customers 300Mbps down and 20Mbps up and we’ll be launching this later in the year.”

It should be noted that some consumers covered by the slower up to 80Mbps FTTC technology are slowly gaining access to the ultrafast premium FTTP service through FTTP-on-Demand (FoD), although this can cost thousands of pounds to install and its roll-out has around a year left to run.

Similarly McDonald said that FoD is “only a business product right now” (i.e. 36 month contracts) and as yet no consumer variety has been confirmed for BT Retail’s product portfolio, although it is being considered.

At this stage we don’t know the full details but it’s worth mentioning that the cost of this new service will come in addition to standard line rental. It’s not a cheap service but then £50 for 300Mbps, assuming BT can deliver the capacity to it, isn’t too bad is it? The real problem is getting the connection installed since it’s either not available to most people or would be very costly through FoD.