Openreach Launch New UK FTTP Premium Connection Service
On the 10th September 2020 Openreach (BT) will make their new ‘Premium Connection’ service available to broadband ISPs that sell their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) service, which costs £40 +vat more than the standard engineer install and in turn gives consumers a wider choice of installation activities.
According to the operator’s limited public briefing, the launch prices for Premium Connection “have been set with reference to information gathered on the average mix of installation activities during a previous technical trial.” Just for comparison, a Standard Connection (engineer installation) normally costs £98.48 +vat for their consumer FTTP broadband tiers, while the new premium option costs £138.48 +vat.
We recall writing about the new premium service trial some time ago and, if memory serves, it brings a number of benefits, on top of the standard connection. The main focus seems to be on additional activities that are designed to optimise connectivity within the end customer premises (i.e. your home).
The additional activities may include things like router repositioning, WiFi analysis, more extensive testing of the live network (using more devices to demonstrate the working service etc.), possibly an allowance for more complicated installations and a few other things. Most consumers won’t need these features but it’s a nice option to have.
In the past we’ve tended not to see additional installation options being openly promoted by the biggest broadband providers (they’d sooner try to get as close to a free setup as possible), but they may still be available upon request and smaller providers sometimes offer them as options during the order process.
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 Linkedin.
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My Openreach FTTP install was entirely free, which was a surprise at the time. The only thing I had to pay for was a tenner for BT to deliver their router.
You don’t pay Openreach, your ISP does. It’s up to your ISP whether or not they pass the charge on to you directly, divided up over your contract, or not at all.
A Tenner!?, Where did it come from Africa?.
Shame BT retail haven’t gotten around to allow no router options upon contract take up. I spent 9.99 on a router that i don’t need.
Keep the router so that in the event of a line fault you can pretend to be a dumb customer and simply say “it no work” when you call customer services. No need to prove your firewall/router/modem/WiFi isn’t to blame.
Off topic, but well done on the css/html tweaks on the comments Mark. Much more readable on phones now.
Just noticed that – looks loads better!
But has it removed the scammy full screen ad that shows once per day when you open a page
Leed, get yourself a PiHole and then Ads won’t be an issue!
We had fttp installed at the beginning of the week, the Openreach engineer was happy to stick an extra ethernet cable through the wall at the same time as he was poking the fiber through. I wanted to replace a powerline connection to a pc and had already bought the cable – saved me some time drilling an extra hole!
I wonder if people will stick to asking nicely for extras or will appreciate the extra help even if they have to pay for it?
There’s no model where end customers pay Openreach directly. Openreach only ever charge your ISP and your ISP may or may not charge you.
Why does it cost more. Same fibre innit ? same ONT ..
Time is money
This sounds like a good option to bring to market and offer customers. My father was offered a FTTP upgrade but knocked it back when they wouldn’t locate the terminating equipment where he wanted (he wasn’t overly bothered since his VDSL line is already coming in at 70-80mbps).
It’s a good move – should be welcomed.
I would just like the option of fttp, don’t care what optional extras are offered.
I’d say its probably worthwhile investing in this service for those customers who are not as IT savy as ISPreview readership are, slightly off topic, at the moment engineers are currently installing FTTP in our road, I have been struck at how valueless fiber cable is to the thieves is, there are budles of the stuff rolled up laying against poles everywhere.
We are quick to criticise, i am impressed with the installation team as for two days they have worked upto 10 at night.
Trouble is, said thieves still tend to chop through fibre in their quest for copper, so while it may be worthless to them, they still cause grief to it.
I’m a supervisor for the teams building Fttp, and I can honestly say that our contractors are working so hard to get Fttp to customers. It’s a privilege to be a part of the build, even though it’s extremely hard and frustrating at times. The guys and girls will work all hours to get the job done, so if you see them, please say thank you….it’s very much appreciated
@Devon, why is BT Openreach not prioritising industrial estates for ANY kind of fibre service?
The number of Industrial estates in Greater London (not out in the sticks) that are stuck with copper only DSL is shocking.
These places would arguably benefit and add to the economy the most by having faster connectivity, yet they have been ignored for nearly 10 years now.
It’s unfathomable.
@Curious George
Oh it’s simple… because Businesses can be squeezed to pay for more expensive Fibre Ethernet services… much the same for my office – slap bang in a City Centre – fibre cabs on either end of our area done – serve residential. The one that is between both of those… magically missed off despite a high density of properties.
Why… it’s all commercial…
@Devon Is that the self employed contractors that end up being forced to work for 5+ hours on one install or face not being paid the £35 per install via the companies preferred umbrella company, that is owned by the contractor company? £35 for 5 hours work?
curious george
this will be low density and high cost and another element in this challenge is that normal contended broadband services do not meet the significant majority for their client base -hence why they are covered in many commercial roll outs
a number of these high profile industial states in london area have cofunded with openreach to improve connectivity on their industrial parks
@George – Presumably because the available workforce is finite, especially with Brexit coming, and the government targets are clearly to increase the speeds of broadband to domestic customers.
Hi mate we have had the same, the guys have been installing fibre cables in the ducts in my area and then terminating them in a BT grid next to my drive. the guys said there will be a couple of days of testing to do, but not sure when it will be available. I have looked at the Openreach website and done a postcode search but still only showing as the broadband service available what we can already get.
Any ideas from when the guys who install the fibre outside, to how long it takes for it to be available to order.
Rural Scotland was promised this 2 years ago, still waiting.
Dumfries and Galloway. We had Fttp installed without cost to houses in our small rural lane last year. Excellent, previously steam driven!
Would love to have any sort of fibre broadband but being in rural area Openreach can’t tell me if I am ever likely to get it installed, but will happily charge me £4000.00 if I request a community connection installation.
problem is its sounds like the wrong question
the clue is in the question – community (ie more that one and the greater the more the less likely the cost per person
Would they ever offer as part of the initial FTTP install, to run and fix external ethernet cables to properties/residences?
Open reach have put fibre on the post next to our home but we still can’t get a date for when can actually get it
so fibre — , ie what sort of fibre, where does it connect to and where it going – not that simple oh so when can i have it its liek a railway line or a railway line – you would not think about jumping on a train if the railway was the bottom of the garden with out a station but you completely ignorr that the fibre migth actually be the a main cable from A – B .
My FTTP installation failed 4 times now as Openreach engineer failed to turn up on the installation days. It is in progress almost three months ago now. Last lie was this Thursday as they will really finish my job next Thursday… I’m very curious what will happen on Thursday, I bet nothing. They explained this as the Covid blocking them to go up to the telephone pole.
Just wondering if you managed to get this resolved? I’m in a similar situation where I placed an order for fibre in August, was told everything would be ok, and when the Openreach guy came to do the installation three weeks ago, he said they would need to do work on the pole to run the fibre cable from the pole to the box he’d installed outside our house. Despite numerous calls to BT and promises from Openreach, they’ve failed to show twice now. I’ve now been told a further two weeks, so said I wanted the issue escalated. Apparently the FTTP offline team are meant to be calling me in two working days. Let’s see if that happens!
let’s be honest. The UK is sadly way behind in speed and bandwidth. To all you lucky minority able to embrace FTTP, suck it up and take envy. It will be many years before the rest of us can join in. Hell I would bet that 5G will have taken over long before the fabled fibre reaches more than 20% of the residential population.
https://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/8801-1-in-4-uk-premises-now-have-access-to-a-gigabit-broadband-option
Most EU mobile operators offers +140Mbps speeds over 4G.
So UK’s fibre FTTC offer only up to 80 Mbps and 250 Mbps for FTTP.
Yes, there possible to get over 250 Mbps, but most EU operators offers 1Gbps for under 20 Euro per month, where UK ISP charge customers £28 for 150Mbps.
Thanks, Duncan. Will do.
I have had a fibre to the home from box to my garden 6 weeks ago but I seem to be the only person who knows that .I have tried to contact both Openreach and BT only to be told that ftth is not in my area.
so who fitted and for whom and by whom – thats the missing bit you not said – if it was not done by openreach (or someone working on behalf of openreach) . it cannot be used by openreach – what does openreach checker say for your address
The irony is that BT offerred to fully fibre the UK backbone network in the 1970s, if only the UK government would cover the cost.
(Typically, they saw no value in doing that.) So here we are having wasted 50 years muddling through on copper wires!
Had we gone with Fibre back in the 70s, you can bet FTTP would have followed by the 80s.
Different things Graham. The core network has been fully fibre since the early 90s. It’s the access network that needs a hefty upgrade. Interestingly, some early full-fibre networks I worked on in the mid-90s became obsolete and have had to be replaced. Being the first mover isn’t always the smartest move.
The main problem with open reach is the lack of accurate information. Their ‘when is fibre coming’ is next to useless. It’s been saying coming soon for us for 3 years! A while back I managed to get a more direct response and was told FTTC September 2019 and FTTP December 2020. I imagine this will change with Covid. Not having accurate information is more frustrating than not having the connection.
andy
suggest you blame the person who got answers and the complained to ASA (advertising standard authority) or Ofcom on of the others that the answers were not kept (sure ISP covered that at the time)
upshot more vague answers and vaguer timelines
careful what you wish for
The FTTP service will still be asymmetric and will be lagging behind the more advanced countries.