Openreach UK to Pilot New FTTP Broadband Advanced Installs

Openreach has today announced that they will soon pilot a new “Advanced Install” service for those taking one of their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP products, which is designed to address situations where an installation might be more complex than usual (e.g. business and public sector users).

The “Advanced” installations are a fairly recent and premium addition to Openreach’s provision options, and indeed we’ve already seen them offering it on other broadband products (here). Naturally, they’re now extending this to full fibre lines too, albeit with some predictably differences.

The UK-wide pilot will commence on 1st July 2022 and should run for a period of 6-months, but predictably this will attract an extra cost (e.g. the pilot pricing states a one-off connection charge of £253.32 +vat). By comparison, the normal charge for a “Standard Connection” is £103.32 +vat and this rises to £143.32 for a “Premium Connection” with a few extra checks etc.

So, what do you get for all that money? Here’s the list. We should point out that some alternative FTTP networks will also charge extra for non-standard installations that require a lot of additional effort, so this is not a new concept for the market.

Advanced installation capabilities:

➤ Up to 100 metres internal wiring from where Openreach network is presented into the premises

➤ More complex cabling, e.g., through multiple walls, new cable trunking

➤ On existing cable trays running horizontally or vertically using cable ties

➤ Through ceiling or floor tiles that are removable and accessible

➤ Using in-situ cabling (structured) to provide service

➤ Connect to existing in-building structured cabling e.g., in comms rooms ‘X’ marks the spot to indicate preference for NTE or ONT install location

➤ Ability to conduct installs over 100m length with Excess Construction Charges (ECCs) applied to pay for additional work beyond the 100m distance – prevailing published ECCs apply.