BT Openreach UK to Begin ISP Pilot of 220Mbps FTTP Fibre Broadband

BTOpenreach, which maintains BT’s national telecoms network, has announced that their recent technical trial of the forthcoming 220Mbps (20Mbps upload) capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP product has gone without a hitch. The full pilot will now begin on 1st March 2013 as planned.

The pilot, which will make the new service available to order in all parts of BT’s FTTP enabled footprint, will run until 31st May 2013 and include free service rental for the duration (connection charges are still applicable). Openreach expect to reveal final pricing details “closer to the launch date“, which is likely to follow in late spring or early summer.

It’s unlikely that Openreach will experience any problems during the pilot as their 220Mbps solution is slower than the existing 330Mbps product (BT are just running through the motions), which incidentally has not been widely adopted by ISPs due to limited coverage and high data costs. The introduction of FTTP-on-Demand during spring 2013 is expected to change that by making FTTP available to all FTTC capable lines, provided you have some very deep pockets.

The new 220Mbps service is also part of Openreach’s wider efforts to streamline their FTTx product portfolio by reducing the number of fibre optic broadband solutions from 10 to just 5 by March 2014.