Openreach Cuts UK FTTC “Fibre Broadband” Contract Terms to 1 Month
Good news for consumers and ISPs alike. Openreach has today announced that the minimum contract term for their ‘up to’ 40-80Mbps Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC / VDSL2) broadband service is to be cut from 12 months to just 1 month for all services!
The decision means that ISPs buying an FTTC based “fibre broadband” service from Openreach will be able to offer shorter contracts to consumers and this applies to new connections, as well as the start of a stopped line or ISP to ISP migrations. In addition, the application of a Homemover’s Adjustment against current FTTC Held to Term charges will no longer apply.
However the decision about whether or not to pass this change on to subscribers will remain one for each ISP. Most of the biggest providers tend to tie customers in to their service with longer 12-18 month terms, although this often has less to do with Openreach’s minimum contract period and more to do with being able to offer a longer contract in return for a cheaper price.
The change, which will be introduced from 12th October 2017, does not apply to ultrafast Fibre-to-the-Premise (FTTP) lines, which currently have very limited coverage (these remain restricted to a 12 month term). By comparison FTTC is now a product of wide national availability (nearly universal) and no longer requires a 12 month term to help Openreach recoup their investment. Recent changes to the regulatory environment may also have had a role to play.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on Twitter, Google+, Facebook and Linkedin.
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About time to! Should hopefully benefit the smaller ISPs.
Yes I was looking at ADSL just because it has 30 day term, I know some do already like Plusnet but also this will help others to compete.
And it’ll be nice to be able to migrate at will (if needs be)
You think ISPs will pass this on though?
I think a number of ISP’s will, whether the big boys do is another question.
Smaller ISPs probably, bigger ISPs probably not because long contracts are all about offering lower prices and locking subscribers in.
If AAISP ever do it would be good
As long as there’s profit in supplying the product for a month then people will offer it – but expect that to mean you paying the connection fee up front, no hardware provided, and potentially having to pay a cease charge.
Well I personally would pay it – full price too
Currently Idnet have a twelve month contract on FTTC services which reverts to a monthly contract after your twelve month term comes to an end.
Fairly normal, not just IDNet does that.
Have to be a bit careful though. I was on 80/20 package capped at 40/10 at the DSLAM with IDNet for 7 years. After I was persuaded to stay (after making arrangements to leave, which I cancelled before the order was implemented), I found myself on a specific capped 40/10 package with a 12 month minimum contract although it’s no different in practice to what I had before! I assume because IDNet had to create a new order with OR to reverse the cancellation, but I doubt they’ll change their rules when OR does!
I know before anyone says that I asked for it by changing my mind!!! Modern tech doesn’t allow that sort of (human) thing. But, of course, staying with IDNet is no hardship. It’s just we can get itchy feet, sometimes.
This isn’t new news they dropped the 12mths to 1 min term FOR SAME SERVICE PRODUCT /ADDRESS migrations back in 2015 when they also recuced the £50 migration fee for GEA FTTC to £11.00+vat
It was also sunject to another condition that the existing FTTC service had to of been live for at least 12mths before hand otherwise it would start a new 12mths min term