BT Openreach Confirm UK ISP Pricing for FTTP on Demand Pilot Phase 2

BTOpenreach, which manages access to BT’s telecoms network in the United Kingdom, has announced the pricing for phase two of its “ultra-fast” 330Mbps (30Mbps uploads) capable FTTP on Demand (FTTPoD) broadband service that will be made available via FTTC (up to 80Mbps) supporting street cabinets from spring 2013.

FTTPoD allows BT to install its “premium” fibre optic FTTP service anywhere that their slower FTTC lines can already go (i.e. 66% of the UK by spring 2014). However, this requires BT to install a new fibre optic line to your home, which is very expensive; although monthly rental prices remain similar to the native FTTP product.

Last December Openreach preliminarily advised that a home or business that existed 500 metres away from an NGA Aggregation Node could expect to pay a construction charge of around £1,000 to have FTTPoD (the price would be higher for those further away and lower if you live closer to the node), which is in additional to an installation fee of £500.

Today Openreach has confirmed the pricing for Phase 2, which will see its 330Mbps (30Mbps upload) FTTPoD service given an annual rental price of £456 inc. VAT (£38 a month) and a one-off connection fee of £500 (note: a scary 36 month contract term will apply); as above, extra construction charges still apply. As usual this does not include all the extra costs that ISPs must add on top (i.e. the retail price will be more expensive).

Openreach Statement

The Pilot will take place in the following exchange areas:

High Wycombe
Bristol South
St Agnes Cornwall
Edinburgh Waverley
Basingstoke
Watford
Cardiff Central
Manchester Central

[ISPs] will be able to place orders between 1 March and 26 April 2013. Orders will be processed in the order they are received, up to a maximum of 100 orders. All orders are subject to survey. The Pilot Phase 2 will test the new automated order processes for FTTP on Demand delivered in EMP R2100.

The final pilot is expected to run until around May 2013 and Openreach usually follows such pilots with an Early Market Deployment launch (this won’t include the same “guaranteed service levels” as the final product), which itself is normally followed a little later by the full commercial introduction.

The service is of course very expensive, which is why Openreach are targeting it more towards business users and professional home workers, although they’re keen to stress that the current pricing should not be taken as an indication of the final product (the final pricing could be different but we’d be surprised if there was a radical change).