Openreach Make Proactive FTTP Upgrades a Standard Process for ISPs
Network access provider Openreach (BT) has made their “Proactive FTTP Upgrades” a standard process from ISPs. This will take effect from 1st October 2024 and should make it easier for UK broadband ISPs that want to migrate existing customers on slower copper-based ADSL, FTTC (VDSL2) and G.fast lines to faster full fibre (FTTP) ones.
A spokesperson for Openreach told ISPreview last year (here): “Proactive migrations arise where a Communications Provider proposes an upgrade to FTTP to its own ADSL/VDSL/GFast broadband customers, at the same time booking an appointment for an Openreach engineer to carry out the upgrade. The end customer is able to confirm, reject or select a different appointment.”
Openreach previously announced a special offer on 28th August 2023, which stated that the first appointment amendment and standard cancellation charges for FTTP orders would be rebated where the orders are part of Proactive FTTP Upgrades.
Advertisement
According to the new briefing, this special offer was due to expire on 30th September 2024, however “given the demand for proactive migrations to FTTP and the success of the process to date“, Openreach said they will instead make this a “standard process” for ISPs from 1st October 2024 (briefing). The charge for cancellation and/or first amend of appointment for FTTP will thus continue to be rebated quarterly for Proactive FTTP Upgrade orders.
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, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
« Virgin Media UK Partners with TSA Telecare Body for Digital Phone Switch
Latest UK ISP News
- FTTP (6031)
- BT (3640)
- Politics (2721)
- Business (2441)
- Openreach (2405)
- Building Digital UK (2330)
- Mobile Broadband (2148)
- FTTC (2083)
- Statistics (1902)
- 4G (1818)
- Virgin Media (1765)
- Ofcom Regulation (1582)
- Fibre Optic (1469)
- Wireless Internet (1462)
- 5G (1408)
Openreach FTTP has been live in our area for 3 years now and has a 55-60% take up. About time the remaining laggards started getting a gentle prod to upgrade….LOL
Up to them, at the end of the day, what about those that can’t upgrade? There are some people in rented accommodation and the landlord may not want holes drilled in their property.
I live in social housing and to get fibre in here I had to ask for written permission and then after that when they came to install they decided to take photos and send them to my landlord before they would install, at that stage was i was thinking of saying stuff it and stay on FTTC.
I know some people who have less interest in getting FTTP installed than I did, it would take a very good offer to get them to change. Telling them they can have super-duper faster speed is not going to cut it.
Withdrawal of FTTC should be enough of an incentive to get people to move. They have no right to a legacy service past their initial contract period.
@Jonny, what these companies need to realise, is that people pay to use their services, no customers, no company.
The same as supermarkets, they seem to think they can do what they like and then they wonder why people shop elsewhere.
I understand that FTTP is the future, but people should not be hassled, certainly those who need a home phone that is reliable.
A mate has a alarm system, which is connected to the phone to protect his home, he has been told it will not work with DV, so what does he do?
Saying that he is thinking of getting rid of it as it cost him money each month and going for a home brew system.
Sadly, he wants my input for some reason and I have no idea where to start apart from getting some sensors for windows and doors and using a smart home hub.,
Been available here for a couple of years but I’m one of the laggards. Quite happy with my 70mbps. I work from home so don’t want the downtime, risk getting cut off or more holes drilling in my listed building.
@AD47UK, digital voice has been around for a long time. I’d be asking some questions of the alarm company of i were tour friend, sounds like they’re taking his money each month for an antiquated service.
The photo of the engineer with old master socket can it replaced with FTTP cable in that socket by removing copper cable? Will be much easier job rather than drill the hole on the wall?
That is the problem, some people think Fibre is just a matter of putting a new bit of cable to the house and that is it, when they realise that someone is going to drill another hole, and you end up with a box stuck on the wall with another socket required they are not so keen.
One of my brothers is considering using a mobile network instead of fixed line broadband, it may be better for him, for what he uses the internet for and may work out cheaper. I am going to look into it for him, at the moment he is with Talk Talk as he was forced to them when Shell decided to sell up. But already Talk Talk have increased the price of his broadband.
A new home being drilled isn’t always necessary.
In fact a large proportion of the time they can reuse the existing copper feed hole.
That’s exactly what they did with my install and every property on my new build development (that’s now about 15 years old).
Ad47uk – new holes, additional sockets are not always neccessary. With the right circumstances (4/5 times in my experience fitting both networks), ie existing holes providing access to the socket on an external wall/coper switchoff etc – any decent engineer worth their salt can make this a tidy job by effectively replacing the existing copper cable with fibre on the same route. This also goes for the existing socket – the new ONTs are almost exactly the same size and can be fitter onto the existing backboxes the copper socket uses.
Their is of course likely to be around 3 inches of new cable showing below the ONT to allow it to plug in, but if that’s the biggest issue in life for someone then I would like to swap places with them.
@John & Grump, you say decent engineer, we are talking about Openreach here or more so their contractors. When they don’t take notice of simple instructions, it does make me wonder.
My next door neighbour it looks like it is going through the same place as the copper cables go in, I don’t know what it is like inside as I don’t talk to her.
As for the ONT being the size of the existing backboxes, it must be a flipping small ONT. I have just had a look at a photo of one, and it is small, but I still don’t think it will fit where the existing back box is, well not the same footprint. The other thing Openreach is not removing the copper cabling and other bits to it.
I have seen some of OR work, saying that I have seen work from some of the Altnets.
Some people will still find it hassle for no advantage for them.
NTE5C Mk4 = 85mm wide, 85mm high.
Openreach Nokia ONT = 82 mm wide, 90 mm high.
Rather than eyeballing it I did the weird thing and searched for the dimensions.
I’m sure OR has crunched the numbers, but how does this balance with the demand for “normal” installation and repair work that has explicitly been requested by a customer. Would filling the schedules with speculative appointments not reduce the number of slots available?
I wish openreach would proactively upgrade me ffs!! In Andover my road still says by ‘December 2026 :(. No virgin or altnets either, which probably explains their reluctance to pull their finger out
I’m in a fibre desert too. Every small town and most rural areas in the county have been covered. But not half of the biggest city – abandoned by all! I could save £8/month (on the same ISP) once FTTP finally arrives, with either OR or CityFibre. But the wait goes on, and on, and the copper grinds on…
I’ve been waiting for Openreach FTTP for years but due to the size of my town and lower population density, they’re seemingly not interested. Skelmersdale, approx 40,000 people live here but there’s a lot of green space between the estates.
In the end, Nexfibre beat them to the punch so I’m off with them on the 16th. Hopefully they get to you soon.
Because forced migrations to DV wasn’t enough fun…
‘Initiated by’ is not the same as forced. Under the new process a customer MUST confirm they understand and want the upgrade. If the messaging is just ignored the upgrade will not happen.
Unfortunately openreach have not built on my street (they have the street behind) and don’t plan to do so until 2025. So this won’t affect me right now I assume.
The end of the year 2023 openreach installed fibre on the other side of our road! We thought we would be next but they just gone away? I know it’s a gigantic project but to do half the road seems nonsensical? I am nearly 76 now I don’t think I will have it in my life time??
Same here! Half of my road is FTTP, the other half (my half, naturally) still FTTC. Literally 4 doors down can get 1800 Mbps, while I’m stuck with 50 Mbps. Completely nonsensical and bizarre.
I see this as a win win for Openreach and the providers. They get ISPs to push more customers on to FTTP which will eventually streamline their repair process as they’ll no longer have as much of the old copper network to maintain and providers will get the upsell opportunity.
The service provider instigates the FTTP order, the end user then has the option to go head or decline the installtion
About time we had a technology update…GPON, XGS-GPON, Symmetrical, Asymmetrical,..8KTV, 8K Gaming, 16K, can these fibre cables handle the next 50 years?
Absolutely they can. The equipment at either end of the cable will be upgraded over time but the cables themselves can handle a near infinite amount of upgrades.
50 years? Maybe. 25 years? Highly likely.
All these fibre technologies are designed to use the same single-mode cable and a single strand of cable with the right kit on it can push 100Gbps with no issues. Right now Openreach are trialling a Symmetric GPON package and the newer headend equipment they are deploying can support XGS-PON when they are ready to start trialling/deploying that.
At ad47uk. Re alarm system
Have a look at pyronix systems. Mine has a wifi card in it for alerting over the Internet. It used to be on a dial up but a new board and wifi card in the panel resolved it. Good app to to control the system.