Openreach Set Final Withdrawal Date for FTTC Installs with VDSL Modem

BTOpenreach has today formally confirmed that the ‘Basic Engineer’ and also ‘Managed Engineer’ Installation options for their ‘up to’ 80Mbps Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) broadband lines, specifically those installs that included a simple VDSL Modem (pictured), will be withdrawn from 31st March 2016.

The move has been coming for a long time (here and here) and is largely a reflection of the fact that the vast majority of new FTTC “fibre broadband” installations today are now of the self-install variety (wires-only / PCP-only), which doesn’t require an engineer visit and means that the ISP takes on responsibility for supplying a VDSL modem or router with new connections (note: ISPs can still offer an engineer install, but only with their own pre-approved router/modem and not Openreach’s familiar box).

Once the change has been introduced then broadband ISPs will have around one year of grace before Openreach stops support (replacement) for consumers who suffer faulty VDSL modems (unless they’ve changed the plan since we last covered it in Feb 2015), which has proven to be a more contentious change.

Some smaller providers have found it easier to have Openreach provide and support the VDSL modem, which frees them up to focus on other things and means they have to deal with fewer support requests. On top of that it saves the hassle and delay of needing to put their own VDSL router through BT’s strict checking process.