By: MarkJ - 28 October, 2010 (9:09 AM) - Score: 6189 - Fixed Line Broadband
BT has criticised the "high price" of Virgin Media UK's new 100Mbps cable broadband service, which launched yesterday (here) and will be available to 50%+ of the country by mid 2012. BT claims that the service, which costs from £35 per month when taken as part of a bundle, is more than twice the price of their own fibre optic based broadband product and won't help families at a time when "budgets are tight".A BT Spokesman told ISPreview.co.uk:
"All superfast broadband is good for the UK and so it is encouraging to see Virgin say they will upgrade their network by 2012. BT is already rolling out fibre broadband to approximately 17 million homes and businesses and it is good for UK plc that there will be another high speed network, albeit one that is isn’t open to other companies in the way BT’s is.
Take up is as important as availability however and so we would question why Virgin are charging such a premium. Their new service is more than twice the price of BT's fibre product and so we are surprised by the high price when most family budgets are tight."
"All superfast broadband is good for the UK and so it is encouraging to see Virgin say they will upgrade their network by 2012. BT is already rolling out fibre broadband to approximately 17 million homes and businesses and it is good for UK plc that there will be another high speed network, albeit one that is isn’t open to other companies in the way BT’s is.
Take up is as important as availability however and so we would question why Virgin are charging such a premium. Their new service is more than twice the price of BT's fibre product and so we are surprised by the high price when most family budgets are tight."
Admittedly BT does charge significantly less and offers a comparable "unlimited" (Fair Usage Policy) package from £24.99 and similar bundles from £19.99 per month. However the operators FTTC service only delivers maximum download speeds of up to 40Mbps and it won't have a 100-110Mbps FTTP offering until 2011.
In addition Virgin Media can already reach half of the country with its existing 50Mbps package that costs from £15 per month, which would perhaps be a fairer comparison for BT's FTTC. When BT has finally rolled out its 110Mb service (summer 2012), the same time as Virgin completes its 100Mbps rollout, it will only have covered 2.5m UK premises while Virgin will be within reach of half the country again.
Eventually BT should be able to reach 66% of UK homes with both its 40Mb FTTC and 100/110Mb FTTP products (2015), although until then the operator is likely to be stuck playing catch-up.
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Comments: 8
StevePosted: 28 October, 2010 - 10:17 AM
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So BT are saying their 40 Mbps service is cheaper than Virgin's 100 Mbps service. Who would have thought that would be the case?? lol. Let's see how much BT charge when they roll out 100 Mbps.
davesubseaPosted: 28 October, 2010 - 11:07 AM
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BT and Virgin should concentrate on rolling out fibre networks to the UK, the latest press release states 70% of the "UK" will be covered by 2012.
By "UK" does this include Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland who are struggling to reach speeds of 2 MB
Another so called benefit of the "Union"
RuralBoyPosted: 28 October, 2010 - 11:20 AM
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Great news....but not for people like me! I'd happily shell out £50 a month for decent broadband, but I live in a rural commiunity in North Yorkshire and neither BT nor Virgin are interested in getting us connected.
It's as if we had only ever had privatised roads: no-one would be interested in building roads in the country (no quick return in it), and so - without public money on roads - we would have tarmac roads and highways in the cities and mud tracks out in the country. Come on people!The country is where Britain's food comes from (well the relatively modest amount that we are actually producing for ourselves). When will the government invest in rural broadband infrastructure??
MadHaggisPosted: 28 October, 2010 - 11:56 AM
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@RuralBoy - North Yorkshire might well get fixed quicker than you think... Gov last week announced £830m of funding for rural broadband, and North Yorkshire will be one of the first to benefit. http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2010/10/20/243451/Spending-Review-Local-network-operators-may-pitch-for-BDUK39s-163530m-
broadband.htm
BTSpinPosted: 28 October, 2010 - 3:18 PM
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No mention that BT pay half the price of Fibre Tax than other companies do. Very hypocritical. Taking away any Fibre Tax and going Mb for Mb, Virgin's deal is far cheaper than BT's.
sparkatbPosted: 28 October, 2010 - 5:11 PM
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At the moment:
£28/month for VM 50Mb - been out 2 years?
£25/month for BT 40Mb - only just started?
In a few months time VM's 50Mb will be about £20/month, and 100Mb at about £30-35/month
(all prices are when taken with a phone line).
So BT, get ya figures right.
BifterPosted: 28 October, 2010 - 5:37 PM
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Ha ha! BT lecturing other ISPs about pricing is like the US lecturing China about human rights, no wait...
Who needs a 100Mb connection? Certainly not families on tight budgets. There isn't another comparable service around at the minute so I reckon VM are happy to mop up the few users willing to pay for the best service just now. Hope their pricing is realigned in due course as they have done historically.
I get by fine on my 10Mb connection and the upload rate will be doubled within a year or so to 1Mb so I can't really justify anything more. There's nothing I would stream that would require more than 10Mb and nothing I can't wait to download quicker so I'll be sticking with the service I've got. It hoses on the ADSL competition!
Legolash2oPosted: 28 October, 2010 - 8:12 PM
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I'd happily also pay upto £50 for a decent connection, soon i will be paying £23pm for a 50down/50up connection, although i would happy pay more.
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