BT Wholesale Add 18Mbps FTTC Product to UK Broadband Checker

The BT Wholesale Checker has added a couple of new columns to reflect the availability of Openreach’s (BT) 18Mbps (2Mbps upload) capable Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC / VDSL2) based “fibre broadband” product, which is aimed at people who still use slow ADSL copper broadband lines.

The new 18Mbps tier is currently still in trial (details here) and was created as an upgrade path for those who live in areas where both FTTC and ADSL are available. However the extra cost of a normal 40-80Mbps FTTC product (this frequently adds a premium of +£5-£15 inc. VAT per month at retail) can be unattractive, particularly if people choose not to upgrade because the speed uplift vs ADSL is simply too small (i.e. FTTC speeds can fall a lot lower than the headline levels).

As a result Openreach created a new 18Mbps tier that is a little bit cheaper (£4 +vat per month at wholesale) than the cheapest 40Mbps tier (£6.90 +vat per month) and they made it available to those who currently receive sub-10Mbps speeds on ADSL / ADSL2+ based broadband lines. The new service is still more expensive for ISPs than an ADSL2+ solution, but the cost is now much closer.

A number of ISPs have been quietly testing the new tier, most prominently via Sky Broadband’s special Sky Fibre Lite product (here), which has been offered to about 20,000 of their subscribers with slow ADSL lines.

Incidentally Sky’s trial is due to come to an end next week (14th Dec) and now it’s been noted via our Inbox (thanks Phil), as well as Thinkbroadband’s Forum, that BTWholesale has updated their checker to reflect the new product (don’t expect it to show much as the trial is still running with limited availability).

We’re unsure why there’s a SIM option showing for the new product, but SIM is usually shorthand for Simultaneous Provide (i.e. broadband and line rental / phone being provided at the same time or as close to that as possible).

We know a few sub-10Mbps ADSL2+ users who might be tempted to take FTTC with this new tier, assuming ISPs price it like the normal ADSL2+ style services.