BT Openreach Trial 18Mbps FTTC Broadband Speed for Slow ADSL Lines

Openreach (BT) has today launched a new low tier bandwidth product for their Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC / VDSL) based “fibre broadband” services, which offers download speeds of up to 18Mbps (2Mbps uploads) for those stuck on slow speed ADSL lines.

The new product option may seem odd, but Openreach sees it as a way to make FTTC packages more attractive to those who might wish for something faster than the old ‘up to’ 8-20Mbps ADSL / ADSL2+ products, but who would otherwise not be willing the pay the extra. Similarly it may eventually help to encourage the eventual replacement of ADSL services.

At present Openreach’s entry-level 40Mbps (2Mbps upload) FTTC tier costs the equivalent of £6.90 +vat per month (this is just the raw wholesale rental and ISPs have to add extra costs, VAT and data usage etc.). But as a general rule most retail FTTC packages from ISPs of the 40Mbps speed tier will usually attract a c.£10 per month premium over ADSL options.

However the new 18Mbps tier looks to shrink the gap between FTTC and ADSL prices and as such it will come with a “special offer” price of £48 +vat per annum, which works out as about £4 +vat per month for ISPs and that’s a big saving over the 40Mbps tier; albeit still reflecting notably slower download speeds (this puts it in the same sort of cost ballpark as an ADSL line).

Openreach Statement

This briefing contains more information on our trial and special offer for our new GEA FTTC 18/2 Mbps product for slow speed ADSL lines. This product will be available at a lower monthly price than the standard GEA service. We expect this will assist CPs in creating options to uplift customers who currently receive a poor ADSL experience. We will be launching the trial and special offer on 15 June [2016] and it will be available for six months on our standard GEA FTTC terms, conditions and prices subject to the changes we refer to below.

Eligibility

The special offer pricing will only be available for those end customers with slow lines that we can identify on eligible cabinets. We are expected to publish details of those initial cabinets and eligible lines on 15 April 2016. While we hold the right to modify cabinet eligibility lists, we do not expect to remove eligible cabinets once published and approved for special offer. The special offer is not available to SIM only provides.

Duration

The special offer will only be available for new orders we receive for slow lines during the six month special offer period, which will run from 15 June until 14 December 2016, inclusive.

Service Level Agreements

During the special offer period only repair and “delivered in a non-operational state” SLGs will apply.

However the standard FTTC connection charges will continue to apply unless the customer can meet the requirements for bulk install by placing three or more orders on the same qualifying cabinet for the same day, at which point it would attract a charge of just £15.00 +vat per connection.

Consumers who find they’re able to benefit from the new 18Mbps product have been told that the current pricing will remain in effect even after the special offer period expires, although Openreach could still change the pricing if it wanted. Apparently the minimum period of service for the special offer product will also be 9 months.

At the time of writing no ISPs have confirmed that they will adopt the new tier, although it usually takes a few months before that happens (as per the new 55Mbps tier) and in any case the special offer period isn’t due to begin until 15th June 2016.

Of course this won’t help much if both your ADSL and VDSL line speeds are both dreadfully slow, as does happen in a few areas.