BT Openreach List Next 82 UK Exchanges for FTTP on Demand

As promised BTOpenreach has today unveiled the next batch of telephone exchange upgrades for the FTTP on Demand (FoD / FTTPoD) service, which makes their “ultra-fast” 330Mbps (30Mbps uploads) capable fibre optic broadband product available via FTTC capable lines.

The service, which is currently still in its Early Market Deployment (EMD) phase, should this month became available from another 82 exchanges (i.e. a total of 142 by the end of December 2013) and Openreach then plans to upgrade another 161 by the end of March 2014 (i.e. taking the total to 303 exchanges and “passing” around 4.7 million premises).

But the term “passing” has a slightly different meaning for FoD because in order to get the service Openreach has to physically build the new fibre optic connectivity out to each individual home or office, which can attract a huge installation cost that could run into thousands of pounds.

At present the one-off installation fee is £500 +vat but additional construction charges are the real killer, especially if you live further away from the local NGA Aggregation Nodes. Essentially, how much you pay depends upon whether or not you live near to one of these nodes. The long lead times and contracts also do little to help matters.

The 82 New FoD Exchanges for Q4 2013
Chorlton – Central England
Denton – Central England
Didsbury – Central England
Macclesfield – Central England
Stockport – Central England
Bishops Stortford – East of England
Boreham – East of England
Epping – East of England
Stansted – East of England
Cockfield Green – East of England
Manchester East – Central England
Moss Side – Central England
Rusholme – Central England
Hartest – East of England
Hawkedon – East of England
Bowes Park – London
Bushey Heath – London
Chorleywood – London
Clapton – London
Colindale – London
Crouch End – London
Edgware – London
Elstree – London
Finchley – London
Harefield – London
Harrow – London
Hatch End – London
Hendon – London
Highams Park – London
Kenton Road – London
Kingsbury – London
Mill Hill – London
New Southgate – London
North Edgware – London
North Finchley – London
North Wembley – London
Northwood – London
Pinner – London
Radlett – London
Rickmansworth – London
Ruislip – London
Stanmore – London
Uxbridge – London
Walthamstow – London
Braintree – East of England
Broomfield – East of England
Chelmsford – East of England
Kings Langley – London
Muswell Hill Crouch End – London
Stamford Hill – London
Tottenham – London
Burghfield Common – South West
Caversham – South West
Earley – South West
Henley On Thames – South West
Hungerford – South West
Newbury – South West
Reading Central – South West
Reading South – South West
Spencers Wood – South West
Tadley – South West
Thatcham – South West
Tilehurst – South West
Wallingford – South West
Woodley; Berkshire – South West
Aylesbury – Wales & Northern Home Counties
Headington – Wales & Northern Home Counties
Oxford – Wales & Northern Home Counties
Summertown – Wales & Northern Home Counties
Abingdon – Wales & Northern Home Counties
Banbury – Wales & Northern Home Counties
Bicester – Wales & Northern Home Counties
Blewbury – Wales & Northern Home Counties
Blunsdon – Wales & Northern Home Counties
Brackley – Wales & Northern Home Counties
Deddington – Wales & Northern Home Counties
Didcot – Wales & Northern Home Counties
Highworth – Wales & Northern Home Counties
Kidlington – Wales & Northern Home Counties
Rowstock – Wales & Northern Home Counties
Wantage – Wales & Northern Home Counties
Wendover – Wales & Northern Home Counties

The progress is good but FoD’s high price prevents it from attracting much residential interest and even business ISPs don’t quite know what to do with it (here). On the other hand FoD is still being rolled out under EMD and mass market products tend to only emerge once the full commercial launch has begun.

As it stands today you’d struggle to find any ISPs offering a FoD service and that doesn’t look set to change for a while. It might give BT the ability to say that full fibre optic connections are available (assuming the deployment can ever truly match national FTTC availability) but at the current price there won’t be many takers.

As a side note, Fibre Voice Access (FVA) has also been under EMD for a couple of years and we’re still waiting to see a real product, which is perhaps due to the lack of interest from BT in making a native FTTP service available to more than a few hundred thousand premises.