FTTP on Demand Order Capacity Still “Constrained” for All UK ISPs UPDATE

Openreach (BT) has issued a new notice to ISPs that sell their Gigabit capable FTTP on Demand broadband product, which reminds them of how “FoD capacity” will continue to be “constrained” by an “industry-wide operational capacity of 20 FoD orders per calendar month.”

The notice proceeds to say that “this is in part due to our recent announcement on Fibre First and our subsequent increase in activity to support major FTTP build across the first wave of eight major UK cities. But also, as you know, FoD is not intended for major multi-sites network upgrade projects, for which there are more appropriate products in our portfolio.”

As a reminder, Openreach recently committed to make their native Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network available to 3 million homes and businesses by 2020 as part of the “Fibre First” programme (here). This is largely separate from the FoD (FTTPoD if you prefer) product, where the end-user has to help pay the significant build costs involved, although any extra FTTP coverage created by FoD does go toward the overall UK total.

A Spokesperson for Openreach told ISPreview.co.uk:

“We haven’t reduced capacity for Fibre on Demand (FoD), we’ve simply reiterated that our maximum capacity for delivery is 20 per calendar month.

That’s more than twice the normal demand we see for what is a niche, bespoke, labour intensive FTTP product.

FoD is still very much open for business but our priority is to focus on an efficient and large scale FTTP roll-out under our Fibre First programme.

We also offer alternative superfast and ultrafast products that are widely available, such as Ethernet Access Direct and Generic Ethernet Access – Fibre to the Cabinet.”

Nevertheless one of the few FoD offering ISPs told ISPreview.co.uk that they’re unhappy with the on-going order constraints and have also been left to wait too long for even the basic desktop surveys to complete. “We are not trying to do major multi-sites networks – just respond to our customers’ demands across our network. … There are locations where FoD should be the solution and Openreach don’t seem to be able to deliver. It’s so frustrating,” said the ISP.

We certainly didn’t expect to be writing a second article about FoD this week, not after Monday’s piece on its hefty costs (here), but that’s where we are. Perhaps one thing that would help is if people stopped requesting FoD quotes merely out of curiosity, unless they are seriously considering an order.

In case it wasn’t clear when we said it multiple times before, FoD is a niche premium solution for small business needs and is not well suited for home connectivity, unless you have some very deep pockets.

UPDATE 15th March 2018

Openreach and BT Wholesale have indicated to ISPreview.co.uk that they do not recognise the delay with desktop surveys being suggested by the ISP above. Apparently it’s always less than three days for an estimate and typically much better.