2. The new services will use a mix of Fibre-to-the-Premise (FTTP) for new builds and Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) for existing locations. However, FTTC requires that the “last-mile” connection to homes and businesses be filled by another technology over existing copper wire. Have you made a decision about which technology will be used for this (e.g. VDSL2)?

BT: The current plans are to trial VDSL technology for FTTC.  This will be an overlay to the existing copper network and will use the existing copper pair between the street cabinet and home.

3. It’s been said that FTTC could limit downstream speeds to a maximum of 40Mbps, rising to 60Mbps in the future, due mostly to the need for an additional technology to fill the “last-mile” (above). Will these differences between the maximum performance of FTTC (40 to 60Mbps) and FTTP (100Mbps) result in respectively differing prices being charged at both retail and or wholesale level?

BT: This may well be the case.  We are currently working on the pricing structure for our FTTx portfolio.

4. Most modern consumer broadband services are extremely cheap, with average prices ranging from £15 to £20 per month and one-time connection costs of around £50. Naturally, faster fibre services could initially be more expensive, with some comparable estimates pointing towards a £100 to £150 connection fee and monthly pricing in the region of £20 to £30.

How close is this prediction and do you worry that the higher costs might put some consumers off? In addition, BT’s Ebbsfleet trials suggest that different speed packages may be offered for different prices (e.g. 10Mbps @ £24 etc.), is this model to be followed nationally?

BT: FTTC is being positioned as a premium product and it is expected to be purchased by consumer who are willing to pay a little more for the increased speed available.  This is in line with the pricing principles outlined for FTTP in New sites.

5. Some UK ISPs impose caps or fair usage restrictions on the total amount of data (GigaBytes) that a connection may download in any given month, after which the service may be stopped, charged extra to continue or throttled. Will fibre offer greater usage flexibility (e.g. more GigaBytes per month) than current services?

BT: We do not plan to set any usage limits on the Openreach wholesale service.  It will be up to individual Communication Providers to decide on their retail offering to end users.

6. Fibre optic broadband services are often touted through their peak ‘up to’ 100Mbps downstream speeds, yet this does not make them immune to the same type of traffic restrictions and network congestion as can exist today. In Sweden it’s not uncommon for some consumers to sign-up with a 100Mbps service only to receive barely 2Mbps. Do you foresee this becoming an issue in the UK too, as something we just have to live with, or is it avoidable? 

BT: Again this is very much down to the particular Communication Provider and how they choose to dimension their particular backhaul and core networks.

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