300Mbps UK Fibre Optic BT Infinity 4 Broadband ISP Product Surfaces

The new 300Mbps capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP/H) based and £50 a month fibre optic broadband product from BT Retail, which is called BTInfinity 4, now has a page on the ISP’s website but don’t all rush at once because you probably don’t live in an area where the service is available.

The new product, which was first confirmed during early July 2013 (here), is arguably still more of a marketing exercise than a viable solution for the mass market because the native FTTP service can currently only reach roughly 100,000 premises. The same goes for BT’s existing £35 a month Infinity 3 (160Mbps) package.

In theory it should eventually be possible for anybody with a slower FTTC line to order the FTTP product through a FTTP-on-Demand (FoD) solution but this is currently still being rolled out and isn’t yet supported by either of the above packages. FoD could also cost thousands of pounds to install (you effectively pay for the new fibre optic line to be built) and has more of a business focus (36 month contract anybody?).

BT Infinity 4 Package Details
* Download speeds of up to 300Mbps
* Upload speed of up to 20Mbps
* Unlimited usage allowance
* BT Home Hub 4 included
* Unlimited calls to UK landlines at evenings and weekends
* 18 Month Contract

The new page makes no mention of Line Rental but BT did initially say that anybody taking one of its retail FTTP products would still need to pay for that, which is likely to continue being the case until the Fibre Voice Access (FVA) alternative is finally given a proper introduction to the commercial market (BT has gone quite on this one for over a year and doesn’t like to talk about it when we ask).

As this stage BT hasn’t made a formal availability announcement for the new package, beyond last month’s update, but then they might not bother with such a limited coverage. Indeed there was a time when BTInfinity 3 was listed alongside their other mass market 76Mbps FTTC (Infinity 2) packages but, perhaps to avoid confusing consumers, it’s since been hidden away. Credits to Thinkbroadband for spotting the development.