Openreach Cut Energy Prices and Launch Cheaper FTTC-Start Setups

BTOpenreach has today advised ISPs of a reduction in the price of energy usage per kWh from £0.1215 to £0.1174 for all comingling products utilised for LLU, Access Locate and Access Locate Plus. Elsewhere their cheaper to setup FTTC-Start service is now moving out of pilot and being launched on 4th May 2016.

The GEA-FTTC Stop / Start service was first unveiled in 2014 as part of a trial (here). In short, lines that have previously had FTTC broadband and which were later “stopped” (e.g. when you move out of a house and cancel your contract) can be “Started” again like a new line because the jumpers will still be present.

Lines activated in this way are quicker to setup than a normal PCP-Only (self-install) connection and cost £32.52 +vat, which is cheaper than the standard PCP-Only install price of £49. The capability was already rolled out across the UK as a pilot in January 2015, so today’s news isn’t much of a change.

We further note that if an ISP orders a PCP-Only FTTC install and a “Stopped” port exists then Openreach automatically delivers that order as a “Start“.