Home
 » ISP News, Key Developments » 
Sponsored Links

Openreach Aim FTTP Broadband for 3 Million Premises in 8 UK Cities

Thursday, Feb 1st, 2018 (7:21 am) - Score 14,499

Openreach (BT) has today announced that they intend to deploy Gigabit capable “full fibre” (FTTP) ultrafast broadband to 3 million premises in 8 major UK cities by 2020 via their new ‘Fibre First‘ build programme, which is up from the current target of 2 million by the same date.

At present the operator’s “fibre” based network covers over 27 million UK homes and businesses, although the vast majority of those are only reached via their slower ‘up to’ 80Mbps Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC / VDSL2) service. Meanwhile c.800,000 (500K on FTTP) premises can already access an “ultrafast broadband” (100Mbps+) connection via their ‘up to’ 330Mbps hybrid fibre G.fast and Gigabit capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) technologies.

Under the previous plan Openreach had aimed to push G.fast coverage to 10 million premises by 2020 and a further 2 million would be catered for by “full fibre” FTTP within the same timeframe. On top of that the operator has also been busy consulting on an aspiration that could see them extend FTTP to as many as 10 million premises by 2025, which they said could come at a cost of between £3bn to £6bn (full details).

Advertisement

Back in October 2017 Openreach claimed to have found “broad support” for their proposal and they spoke of a desire to start the engineering work “sooner rather than later” (here), but they also warned that such a roll-out might only be possible with co-investment support from other ISPs, as well as softer regulation and reduced logistical barriers (improved planning) etc. Easier said than done.

Meanwhile Ofcom and the Government continue to pressure the operator for more action and today they reaffirmed their aspiration for 10 million FTTP premises, although for now they’ve only confirmed an accelerated rollout plan for the first 3 million. This will require them to recruit and train a further 3,000 field engineers in 2018.

The 8 Major UK Cities
Birmingham
Bristol
Cardiff
Edinburgh
Leeds
Liverpool
London
Manchester

Apparently the accelerated rollout plan for 3 million premises will eventually connect up to 40 UK towns, cities and boroughs with FTTP, with build starting in 2018 (technically the build is already underway and has been for awhile). The press release also references a desire to bring FTTP into rural areas, which is largely just a reflection of their on-going state aid backed deployments with the national Broadband Delivery UK programme.

Overall the Fibre First programme will see Openreach build FTTP to a further c.800,000 premises in BDUK areas (mostly rural) and new housing sites, and to c.1.7 million premises in towns and cities. The strategy for the next 7 million is still subject to change, depending upon whether Openreach gets the support it wants. “If Openreach is unable to secure an acceptable return, it will need to review its ongoing capital commitments to the programme,” said the operator.

Advertisement

Clive Selley, Chief Executive of Openreach, said:

“Through the Fibre First programme, Openreach is getting on with the job of building an Ultrafast Britain. We are accelerating our plans to build FTTP to three million premises by 2020 which sets the course to reach ten million by the mid-2020s with the right conditions. Where possible going forward, we will ‘fibre first’.

Working closely with Central and Local government and our Communication Provider customers, we will identify the cities, towns and rural areas where we can build a future-proofed, FTTP network that’s capable of delivering gigabit speeds to all homes and businesses at an affordable cost.

We’ll continue to invest in our people and we’re already in the process of re-training and upskilling to make Fibre First a reality. We plan to hire around 3,000 engineers in 2018/19 to kick-start Fibre First and further improve the reliability and performance of our existing networks.”

The press release doesn’t state how much investment is being committed to deliver the accelerated plan by 2020, although yesterday one contractor (MJ Quinn) seemed to be suggesting that the Liverpool deployment could suck up around £250 million (we suspect that might also include their G.fast rollout and other costs, so take with a pinch of salt).

Speaking of G.fast, Openreach clarified that their ‘Fibre First’ ethos also means they “will not build Gfast and FTTP to the same locations,” which makes economic sense in the short to medium term but we suspect that they will eventually still have to come back to those same G.fast areas and upgrade them to FTTP.

Openreach noted that the “benefits [of FTTP] include: better, more reliable service; fewer faults; and faster, more predictable and consistent speeds. The platform would be future-proof.” Meanwhile the operator also took the opportunity to identify a set of enablers that will be needed if they are to underpin a “viable commercial business case” for deploying FTTP to 10 million premises in the future.

Enablers

1. Build and connection costs

The cost of building FTTP varies significantly depending on the exact location. Openreach expects the cost of building FTTP in towns and cities over the next three years to be around £300-£400 per premise passed. If the costs of battery back-up are excluded for the majority of customers, we expect connection costs to be around £150-£175.

ISPreview’s Note: As an example, current connection charges for ultrafast FTTP 160Mbps range from £92 to £117 +vat. Openreach’s current ultrafast FTTP pricing ranges from £19.78 to £21.39 for 160Mbps with connection fees for £92. This of course excludes all of the extra costs that ISPs then have to add on top (capacity, network, profit margins, 20% VAT etc.).

2. Take-up and Revenue

The consultation identified three sources of value: lower Openreach operating costs enabled by the new platform; incremental revenue per line from Openreach’s wholesale charges to CPs; and the benefit to Openreach from a more competitive network. Our further analysis continues to indicate that all three sources of value will be needed to secure acceptable returns.

To maximise the potential of a large-scale new FTTP deployment, Openreach believes it is essential to move all customers onto the new network quickly once built. In the first instance Openreach believes mass market adoption at competitive prices [see directly above] can be pursued through commercial agreements with CPs, and will explore models to achieve this in parallel with accelerating its FTTP build. Ultimately a ‘switchover’ process will be required, moving all customers onto the FTTP network so that everyone benefits. Openreach will consult with CPs and other stakeholders on how this can be achieved in due course.

3. A supportive regulatory and public policy framework

To maintain momentum on building more FTTP into the 2020s, a supportive regulatory and public policy framework is essential. Openreach is encouraged by its initial engagement with both Ofcom and Government, and looks forward to continuing to work with both to secure the right conditions for sustained commercial investment. Key requirements include:

i. the extension of Cumulo rates** relief to better reflect the long-term nature of FTTP infrastructure investment timescales;

ii. certainty around the fair bet framework to ensure that initial and subsequent rounds of investment have the opportunity to earn returns that fully reflect the risk taken at the time of investment, and where competition is effective, greater commercial freedom;

iii. support for and help with a switchover process when this ultimately becomes required to maximise the benefits of the platform;

iv. close partnerships with local authorities to reduce red tape and provide a smooth path to delivery. Openreach has already piloted a co-located Fibre First team with the City of London Corporation and will now replicate this model with other local authorities as part of the Fibre First project.

** “Cumulo rates‟ is the phrase used to describe a tax on commercial property. The “commercial property” taxed in this way is defined by the Valuation Office Agency (“VOA”) as BT‟s network (ducts, poles, parts of exchange buildings and other assets).

Meanwhile Openreach’s rivals (e.g. Vodafone, Cityfibre, Hyperoptic, Gigaclear etc.) seem to be growing their deployment strategies and investment pots and often without requiring some of the above changes, although they aren’t held to the same stiff and complicated regulation as Openreach.

Advertisement

UPDATE 9:48am

A Statement from Cityfibre has been issue.

Cityfibre Statement

As a business founded to deliver a new digital infrastructure platform for the UK, we welcome any contribution, from any source, that supports a drive towards national coverage. Today’s announcement from Openreach is a clear response to competition from CityFibre and other alternative full fibre infrastructure builders.

It is clear that it’s in UK consumers’ and businesses’ best interests to deliver full fibre connectivity to the maximum possible number of premises in the shortest possible time and at the best possible value.

CityFibre and Vodafone is already leading the way, with a long-term strategic partnership that will bring ultrafast Gigabit-capable full fibre broadband to up to five million UK homes and businesses, approximately 20% of the UK market, by 2025.

It is recognised by government and Ofcom that the time has come to reduce the public’s dependency on Openreach. It is not in the UK’s best interest to encourage further entrenchment of the incumbent monopoly. As successfully demonstrated all over the world, it is a new generation of infrastructure builders that are best placed to deliver full fibre – able to deliver the next generation of digital connectivity faster and at lower prices than incumbent operators.

UPDATE 11:07am

Now a comment from Hyperoptic’s boss.

Dana Tobak CBE, CEO and MD of Hyperoptic, said:

“Hyperoptic welcomes naysayers Openreach to the Full Fibre table but find their motives and focus suspect. For years, Hyperoptic have been leading the Full Fibre transformation, ensuring that our cities are ready for their digital futures, while Openreach has focused on fibre to the cabinets and convincing the country that we’d never need more than 30 mbps.

During that same period, Hyperoptic has rolled out Full Fibre to 30 cities and enabled a digital transformation within those catchment areas. Indeed, 1 in 7 central London and Manchester residents have access to Full Fibre, and across the Openreach’s future phase 1 territories Hyperoptic already cover 10% of properties with plans already in progress for our greater vision. We re-iterate and confirm our target for 2m homes passed for 2020 and 5m for 2025.

We also call on Ofcom to ensure that the Fibre First announcement is not a distraction from fulfilling the strategy of 2016’s Digital Communications Review, which rightly concluded that the UK is best served with Infrastructure competition. Openreach must be regulated to use its own duct and pole product when implementing its FTTP roll out so there is equivalent opportunity to build FTTP networks at scale and that Fibre First isn’t just a marketing name for Openreach’s Fibre Monopoly.

Hyperoptic has demonstrated its ability and commitment to transforming broadband into future proofed digital connectivity. Our customers enjoy 1 Gb connectivity for 20% less than BT’s 300 Mb product and with a customer satisfaction score of over 92% its proof that a competitive infrastructure environment is good for consumers.

Lets get away from accepting short term solutions at the expense of the digital future of the UK.”

UPDATE 12:52pm

The Government has sent along their reaction.

Matt Hancock, DCMS Secretary of State, said:

“Full fibre connectivity will be vital in building a Britain that’s fit for the future and can attract investment in a global market. I’m glad that Openreach have begun to make this shift in strategy, away from reliance on copper based systems and in favour of the best modern technology.

We want to encourage a competitive market to rollout this technology and we will work with Openreach, Virgin, CityFibre, Gigaclear, TalkTalk and the growing number of full fibre broadband providers to build a Britain fit for the future.”

Tags: , , , , ,
Mark-Jackson
By Mark Jackson
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 X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and .
Search ISP News
Search ISP Listings
Search ISP Reviews
Comments
49 Responses

Advertisement

  1. Avatar photo New_Londoner says:

    The CEO of City Fibre just referred to profit as greed in a piece aired on Radio 4 before an interview with Clive Selley of Openreach. Bizarre, I’m sure his shareholders will be fascinated and concerned to hear this!

    I’m not convinced he and his PR team have thought through the implications of his comments. Presumably he’s feeling pressure due to the Openreach announcement.

    1. Avatar photo NGA for all says:

      On a day OR agrees to c70,000 month FTTP installs we should salute that today.
      OR should take the opportunity to suggest that 20k a month of these could be in rural if all the BDUK and Deferrals are used effectively.
      Cityfibre/Voda volume has to be dependent on getting PIA working in a partnership with OR. If it works OR could in theory add this to its rollout. Cityfibre/Voda must become a Cityfibre/Voda and OR PIA partnership if any volumes are to emerge.
      Will this additional investment be acknowledged in a revised WLA cost recovery/price control for NGA? It would be good I think if it was.

    2. Avatar photo TheFacts says:

      @NGA – ‘OR should take the opportunity to suggest that 20k a month of these could be in rural if all the BDUK and Deferrals are used effectively.’

      Should, opportunity, suggest, could be, effectively?

      Please try again.

    3. Avatar photo AndyH says:

      @ NGA

      You do realise that PIA is redundant with Cityfibre/Vodafone?

      “CityFibre will be micro-trenching every street, so that when a customer signs up, it will be a case of connecting the micro-trench to the customer’s box.”

    4. Avatar photo CarlT says:

      I thought they were using FoD, Andy.

    5. Avatar photo NGA for all says:

      AndyH, you will have even less to worry about!

    6. Avatar photo NGA for all says:

      CarlT – The only way Huntslett will get FTTP will be if FoD is delivered as promised multiple times.

  2. Avatar photo AndyC says:

    Is this a full fibre conversion or will it be fibre for data and copper for voice?

    1. Mark-Jackson Mark Jackson says:

      That is the goal but, as above, they’ve yet to reach an agreement. As such any FTTP that is currently being deployed remains a complement to the existing copper network, rather than a replacement. Complete migration would be very complicated but will have to happen eventually.

    2. Avatar photo New_Londoner says:

      The LLU operators (Sky, TalkTalk etc) will delay this as much as possible to sweat their assets, despite their protestations about wanting to “fix Britain’s broadband “, which is patently not the case.

    3. Avatar photo Andy says:

      @New_Londoner Most of the “LLU assets” will be reusable e.g. rack, switches, backhaul etc. Only the DSLAMs will go and most of these would probably need replacing if the cut over didn’t happen. So big LLU providers are unlikely to actively delay on the basis of “sweating assets”

    4. Avatar photo Rahul says:

      I am assuming this would be a separate Fibre installation. So we should have 2 sockets in our homes, 1 for the existing Copper ADSL service and the other for full FTTP. Naturally this makes sense as a pure Fibre network will be separate from the Copper infrastructure otherwise it wouldn’t be called FTTP.

      If copper still has anything to do with it, then it means we aren’t getting FTTP.

      You will not be dependent on voice, since FTTP is not dependent on a telephone service to deliver broadband. Similar to what B4RN have done, they cancelled their existing BT Telephone line and use VOIP internet telephone service such as Vonage. You can do this with Skype as well just topping up credit to your Skype account. No longer needing a separate home telephone for chat. 🙂

      Now this move is actually in the interest of all providers. Since Openreach noted that the “benefits [of FTTP] include: better, more reliable service; fewer faults; and faster, more predictable and consistent speeds.

      This should drive costs down as customers will no longer be complaining about slow, fluctuating speeds, outages, drop-out problems, etc. Eventually this should save money, as Openreach will not need as many engineers to hire to sort out outage problems etc in FTTP like they do at present with the old copper system.

    5. Avatar photo Steve Jones says:

      @Rahul

      That argument makes no sense at all. Openreach’s FTTP product already allows for FVA (voice over fibre) which provides for two analogue voice ports. Some choose to have the voice delivered by a separate copper pair, but it’s not necessary. Of course if you are talking about getting rid of copper inside the home for voice, then I’m not sure why, but it’s perfectly possible to use VOIP if that’s the aim (although if you want a copper-free home, better avoid hard-wired Ethernet using UTP cable.

      https://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/products/super-fastfibreaccess/fibrevoiceaccess/fibrevoiceaccess.do

      As for the contention that fibre will eventually prove to be a cost saver in terms of faults, then the truth of that will tell over time. Whilst fibre has a lot of advantages, it’s also a lot more troublesome to test at intermediate points by its very nature. Until complex fibre local fibred networks have been in the ground for several decades we won’t know. In the medium term, there will be parallel networks running, especially as there is no regulatory mechanism allowing OR to withdraw copper, and no sign that Ofcom are even considering changing that.

    6. Avatar photo Joe says:

      Surely there is a lot of low hanging fruit Mark: I had battery backup provided with my FTTP and VOIP is a subscription option. There are and will be millions more in that position if ORs rollout goes to plan.

    7. Avatar photo Rahul says:

      @Steve Jones

      What I am saying is that you will no longer be obliged or dependent (shall I say) to pay for phone line rental. Under present ADSL Copper up to 17Mbps you have to pay line rental on top of your broadband service. You cannot avoid phone line rental and have broadband only.

      Whereas with a Full Fibre Broadband service you will no longer be dependent on the monthly phone line rental service payment. This means if the telephone line has a fault it will not affect your broadband when it comes to FTTP.

      But right now when you have an ADSL service or an FTTC and G.FAST service you are still dependent on phone line rental which ends up with a more expensive package. Since FTTC still carries through the broadband signal to your home via copper cables you aren’t getting the full 1Gbps service but more like up to 330Mbps with G.FAST or 76Mbps with FTTC.

      FTTP will effectively avoid this barrier. You’re going to get full fibre optic cables running through your apartment or house no more separate green cabinets. This new cable will be separate from the telephone socket we have right now. Of-course we will not need to get rid of this existing copper infrastructure. That can also stay in your home alongside your new fibre optic cables, it just means it will be of no use any more. But it can stay there just in case you ever need it.

      But it means you don’t need to pay phone line rental service through this old existing copper service. That can be cancelled like how B4RN did. No one in the B4RN Rural Lancashire area subscribes to BT Phone line rental, they use VOIP for telephone chat. That is what I am saying. What this would mean is that you will end up with a cheaper service when you subscribe to Vonage or Skype for your telephone service through your PC.

      The FVA that you’re talking about is just an added bonus.

    8. Avatar photo wireless pacman says:

      @Rahul

      You are not obliged to pay for a phone line rental anymore with adsl, FTTC etc.

    9. Avatar photo Tony says:

      Rahul: “The FVA that you’re talking about is just an added bonus.”

      No, its not. Where Openreach have installed fibre only (eg new builds), you MUST take out a FVA service in order to get a BT Retail FTTP service. No FVA service = No broadband over FTTP. At least that’s the case with BT.

    10. Avatar photo Rahul says:

      @wireless pacman I wished that was the case. Line rental is included. I pay £18.99 for line rental and around £2 for broadband. Total £21 for up to 17Mbps with sky. In reality if you were to exclude the line rental payment broadband will cost only a few pounds. But these companies are exploiters, they won’t give you that offer…

      @Tony
      Well then BT are exploiting if they make FVA a mandatory requirement. Technically with FTTP/H you are no longer dependent on a phone line to receive fibre broadband.

      We can see that https://hyperoptic.com/price-plans/?broadbandonly are proving fibre broadband without line rental although only £3 cheaper.. But that’s how they made the prices. In reality it should be quite a bit cheaper than that as well. But businesses like to exploit customers for profit.

      https://b4rn.org.uk/faqs/

      How do I make phonecalls using B4RN?

      You will need to sign up to a third party VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) service. This provides a telephone service that uses your internet connection. The calls are generally cheaper than on a traditional phone service, and you won’t need to pay line rental anymore. B4RN subscribers have found market leaders Vonage provide a good, consumer friendly service, however, there are many alternatives you can find by googling for “VoIP service”.
      —————————
      As we can clearly see here even B4RN and mostly every other FTTP service provides Fibre without a telephone line service. You should not be obligated to pay line rental under an FTTP plan.

      But I guess if FVA is mandatory, BT just want to exploit to make up the cost for their fibre layout project.

      We can see B4RN provide 1Gbps for only £30 a month. That would be a dream come true for everyone living in urban cities like London. Hyperoptic provide 1Gbps for £60 and I don’t think it would be much cheaper with any other provider either. But at the moment even price is not my worry. We just want to have this FTTP service layed out. I’m sure for almost everyone out here we can afford 100Mbps Full Fibre with ease and it would be much worth it in ratio to the quality of service we get compared to old copper line service.

    11. Avatar photo AndyH says:

      At retail level, it’s up to the service providers whether they allow customers to buy a FTTP without the underlying voice element (WLR/FVA).

      I think the only reason BT Retail don’t do a data only FTTP package is because they sell all fibre products (FTTx) under the same, Infinity product line. Once the SoGEA FTTC is commercially launched, I’m sure you will see data only Infinity packages.

    12. Avatar photo occasionally factual says:

      Other providers are available that sell Openreach FTTP to consumers without a phone component requirement.
      Zen do although it is only 50p a month cheaper for no phone!

    13. Avatar photo chrisp says:

      @Rahul

      you are taking the term “phone line rental” too literally. Take the word “phone” out of it and its more representative. ISP’s have been masking the cost of BB by lumping its costs in the line rental to make their BB product look cheaper. This is why OFCOM insisted companies now advertise the total cost including line rental. The reality is you need to rent the line, whether that is FTTP or FTTC, the maintenance of the line & rest of the network still needs to be covered and is more than £2 per month regardless if its owned by VM, OR, B4RN etc, hence the line rental covers that, then you pay for bandwidth and management on top then the ISP adds some profit.

      It really doesn’t matter now days how the call is delivered over the line. AFAIK BT must supply a working copper line that works in a power cut so emergency service scan be notified, which is why they mention fibre routers in peoples homes with battery backup. VOIP deployments in offices will have at least 1 POTS handset somewhere to be used in the event of an emergency. Once OFCOM removes the restriction on copper pair availability, and permits the removal of copper pair when Fibre is installed we will see a huge increase in uptake of deployment as it becomes cheaper of OR as they will not have to maintain 2 networks.

      I’d like to see all Fibre roll outs have to be offered to wholesale with OFCOM derived charges like we saw with LLU, and built to specific standards consistent across the nation. I believe it’ll create the drive by independent network builders that OFCOM wants, with consumers safe in the knowledge they are not locked in to a specific provider.

  3. Avatar photo JamieO says:

    RE possible expansion from these 8 cities into 40 towns – there was an article on the Liverpool Echo earlier this week about the ‘Fibre First’ plan, in which it is mentioned:

    ‘In Liverpool it will work with the council and with Knowsley firm MJ Quinn to upgrade the network. Once it completes its work in Liverpool it will then move on to the rest of Liverpool city region’

    So hopefully, the 40 towns will include my home town of Widnes, Plus Runcorn & St Helens (all towns which are part of the Liverpool City Region)

  4. Avatar photo Max says:

    So we just about solved most of the rural/town speed divide with the BDUK programme, and now they’re going back to square one by rolling out gigabit internet that is over 10x faster than they have provided rural communities with their up to 80Mbps FTTC.

    Sigh.

    1. Avatar photo Joe says:

      Err not sure that analysis is right. While rural speeds have risen they have lagged about as far behind the urban averages as ever.

  5. Avatar photo Kits says:

    Will this FTTP work to place those still stuck on EO lines only first since these are the ones close to exchange yet unable to get faster than 24Mbps. BT openreach have been leaving them just the same way as they neglect rural areas. They make a section fast then before they level the field they increase the speed to those who already have it. They really need to also bring those on the old 20CN networks into the 21st century as there is still many stuck on less than 8Mbps.

    1. Mark-Jackson Mark Jackson says:

      I think the aim is still to complete the 20CN to 21CN migrations by the end of 2018. But progress in telecoms and broadband has always been very dynamic, not least due to competitive pressures. If Openreach had waited to do FTTC/VDSL2 until it got ADSL2+ capable lines out to everybody then we might still be waiting today.

      Quite a lot of rural areas are also currently getting FTTP/H but it’s a matter of what works best, and for where, within the budget.

    2. Avatar photo Gadget says:

      Issue is ADSL to ADSL2+ is not in the bailiwick of Openreach, but BTWholesale

    3. Avatar photo Steve Jones says:

      You can guarantee that this will have commercial objectives first. As Ofcom are encouraging infrastructure competition, then that will be the driver. Ofcom is not offering any network operator any regulatory incentive for premises which are currently poorly served apart from the obvious point that any operator which resolves such issues is likely to have very high takeup.

      It might be that OR’s project will resolves some exchange-only line issues, but if the aim is to do this for £300 for each premises passed, it might be a stretch and will depend on circumstances. However, it’s clear that, unless there’s a specific incentive, it will be commercial and competition drivers that rule.

    4. Avatar photo Joe says:

      @Steve – Certainly regulatory incentives for slow areas would be nice and might actually work – though I imagine a potential legal headache.

    5. Avatar photo Miguel says:

      Many exchanges with EO lines have had PCPs and DSLAMs placed on the doorstep to provide FTTC service to those close to the exchanges.

      In regards to those that haven’t the Service Providers set the speed with the equipment they use. Openreach provide the line only in those case.

  6. Avatar photo Jon says:

    Did you even read the article & openreach press release? Rural areas are seeing lots of works ongoing with more planned

    The majority of the current fttp footprint is in rural.

    1. Avatar photo AndyH says:

      “The majority of the current fttp footprint is in rural.”

      This is incorrect.

    2. If talking percentage terms then yes rural higher, in terms of premises numbers urban wins, but as urban areas make up 74% of the UK that should be no surprise.

    1. Avatar photo Steve Jones says:

      That issue has been taken to court on at least two occasions and the challenges to the rating system used have failed.

    2. Avatar photo Optimist says:

      The courts interpret the law, parliament makes the law. Why have taxes on ducts, cables, manhole covers and pay for civil servants to work out this tax when consumers get charged 20% VAT on the service they get anyway? According to the article there is only one other country, Ireland, which has this tax.

      It’s as outmoded as the window tax.

  7. Avatar photo Marty says:

    If the government wants more fibre and openreach wants return on their investment why not come too the agreement of continuous funding from the BDUK programme for FTTP in urban and rural area’s is it possible that both would benefit from such a thing?

    1. Avatar photo GNewton says:

      More taxpayer’s money for BT? That would be a bad solution!

    2. Avatar photo AndyH says:

      What is your solution GNewton?

    3. Avatar photo GNewton says:

      @AndyH; There are far more urgent areas to be covered by government fundings, such as the NHS. Why on earth would you want to strengthen the already significant market power of a private company like BT which never had any need for taxpayer’s handouts, and which has a history of bad decisions and a poor reputation?

    4. Avatar photo AndyH says:

      @ GNewton

      I think you answered a different question to the one I asked.

    5. Avatar photo Mike says:

      Maybe the government have stupidly believed BTs prior 2+ Million premises covered by FTTP in years gone by which has never happened. Given BT are the ones that keep claiming they are going to do this and that coverage wise, no solution to help them should be needed.

      Same old BT quote some BS figure to try to pump the share price up, then when it has not happened a couple of years later announce a new lot of BS figures.

      I believe BT call these “AIMS”… Aims where anything that is blind could be more accurate or a child with Dyscalculia could do the maths better. But “AIMS” all the same.

  8. Avatar photo James Cocker says:

    What exactly are the logistics of rolling out FTTP to an area?

    e.g. I am in Edinburgh, one of the 8 cities mentioned, I live in a normal detached house in a typical housing estate. In order to get FTTP, does my exchange first need to be updated, and then fibre laid in my actual street? Before I can then request to be connected?

    If so, for the street does this mean a channel needs to be dug the full length of the street? (For some strange reason, my street is the only one in the area that doesn’t have Virgin. The estate was built around 2000).

    1. Avatar photo Salek says:

      In order to receive Fibre – there are many methods that can be deployed, Trenching, Micro trenching, Over head cable, Existing ducting,

      Time will tell – they may use a mixture of all depending on the given situation

    2. Avatar photo Light source says:

      With any luck, very little will need to be done James…….give me a street name and I’ll tell you how it would be done . At at guess, I’d say your maybe newington ? Virgin very patchy out that way

    3. Avatar photo James Cocker says:

      We’re in The Murrays: https://goo.gl/maps/1MvEE1Gb8Y52

      As far as I’m aware everywhere around us has Virgin, but not The Murrays or The Murrays Brae, which I’ve always found odd.

  9. Avatar photo Samuel Barr says:

    Glasgow should be on that list thats all I am saying 🙂

    1. Avatar photo Salek says:

      Shouldn’t every body be on this list

  10. Avatar photo johhny says:

    £150-175 connection cost per customer that is overly optimistic.Who would bid to take on these works at those prices to dig up the roads in cities? I think the investment per customer is far greater.

Comments are closed

Cheap BIG ISPs for 100Mbps+
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
NOW UK ISP Logo
NOW £24.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £25.00
132Mbps
Gift: None
Vodafone UK ISP Logo
Vodafone £26.50 - 27.00
150Mbps
Gift: None
Sky Broadband UK ISP Logo
145Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
New Forum Topics
Cheapest ISPs for 100Mbps+
Brsk UK ISP Logo
Brsk £19.00
150Mbps
Gift: None
Gigaclear UK ISP Logo
Gigaclear £19.00
300Mbps
Gift: None
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
YouFibre UK ISP Logo
YouFibre £22.99
150Mbps
Gift: None
Hey! Broadband UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
The Top 15 Category Tags
  1. FTTP (5910)
  2. BT (3618)
  3. Politics (2677)
  4. Business (2392)
  5. Openreach (2384)
  6. Building Digital UK (2311)
  7. Mobile Broadband (2099)
  8. FTTC (2074)
  9. Statistics (1871)
  10. 4G (1771)
  11. Virgin Media (1723)
  12. Ofcom Regulation (1553)
  13. Fibre Optic (1454)
  14. Wireless Internet (1445)
  15. FTTH (1384)
Promotion
Sponsored

Copyright © 1999 to Present - ISPreview.co.uk - All Rights Reserved - Terms , Privacy and Cookie Policy , Links , Website Rules , Contact
Mastodon