Openreach Delay SOGEA Broadband and Prep FTTC Price Cut

Openreach (BT) has delayed the launch of their Single Order Generic Ethernet Access (SOGEA / SOGFast) product, which enables UK people to buy a standalone FTTC (VDSL2 or G.fast) broadband ISP line without the analogue voice (phone), due to a concern over failure rates. The 40Mbps FTTC tier is also due another price cut.

At present most consumers on Openreach’s national copper based network must buy their phone service alongside line rental and then broadband is optionally added on top (most ISPs seamlessly bundle the two together by default). However SOGEA enables providers to sell a physical line just for broadband (i.e. not everybody needs a fixed voice line today), with voice thus moving to an Internet Protocol (IP) / VoIP based solution as an optional product.

A number of ISPs, such as Sky Broadband, already have SOGEA based products as part of an Early Market Deployment (EMD). The nationwide roll-out of “full fibre” (FTTP) networks will eventually also make analogue phone services extinct (old analogue phone services to be withdrawn in 2025) and so solutions like SOGEA are often seen as a necessary stepping stone on a longer term migration path.

Under the current plan SOGEA was due to get its full commercial launch (end of the EMD period) on 31st January 2020 but Openreach has today confirmed that they’ve recently “seen a rising trend in Early Life Failures” (e.g. if a fault occurs within the first 30 days). By the sounds of it one of the issues may have been ineffective consumer education about the change to VoIP, which has different pros and cons (e.g. the phone must be plugged into an ATA box or router, not any old wall socket).

Openreach Statement

After investigating the causes of this rise, we have decided to hold the launch, to give us time to collaborate with CPs and help reduce the ELF rate.

We believe that through collaboration with CPs we will be able to swiftly reduce the ELF rate to sustainable levels by:

— Making improvements in point of sale validation by CPs – ensuring that all end customers are fully aware that their voice service is changing to VoIP (or digital), that they understand the different characteristics of the new service and how to get the best use from it.

— Ensuring that end customers understand the changes in home setup – particularly around the removal of extension wiring and the need to plug their phone into the hub.

— Improving the first-line fault reception such that CP agents can correctly identify CP voice issues and resolve those rather than raising costly LTOK faults resulting in unnecessary superfast visit assure charges.

We will reassess the product performance and the ELF rate over the next month with the aim to notify the launch of SOGEA in January 2020, subject to making improvements.

Thankfully the delay is not huge and the tentative plan right now is to launch SOGEA on 1st March 2020. Openreach has separately announced an update to their existing special offer on new SOGEA installs, which between 1st February 2020 and 31st July 2020 will see the price of a Standard Managed installation set at £92 +vat (Standard price £105) and a Premium install at £112 (Standard price £125).

Speaking of discounts, Openreach has now notified of another wholesale price reduction to their 40Mbps (10Mbps upload) Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC / VDSL2) service tier, which in accordance with Ofcom’s regulation will drop the annual rental from £61.51 to £59.97 (doesn’t include any of the costs that ISPs have to add on top for network, VAT, profit, features etc.). We don’t expect ISPs to pass such a small saving on to consumers.

Finally, Openreach has also today announced the 31st January 2020 launch of their new 1Gbps Street Access product, which delivers Ethernet data connectivity to street furniture (lampposts, CCTV poles etc.) and could be useful for various things (boosting WiFi hotspots, 4G / 5G mobile, connectivity for smart kiosks etc.).