Openreach Cuts UK Price of 1.2Gbps and 1.8Gbps FTTP Broadband Tiers
Network operator Openreach (BT) has today informed ISPs about a “realignment of prices” on their top two fastest Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband tiers – 1.2Gbps and 1.8Gbps (both 120Mbps upstream), which in practice appears to mark a further price reduction. Rivals will perhaps remark that we’ve seen quite a few special offers from the incumbent of late.
The changes apply to internet service providers that have joined the network operator’s Equinox contract, which is the name of their sometimes divisive volume focused discount scheme that also provided pricing certainty over a 10-year period (here and here).
According to the latest briefing, as of 1st February 2026, the Equinox prices in the Openreach price list will be changed as follows (Openreach is giving 90 days notice of this, as required by Ofcom):
Advertisement
1. GEA-FTTP 1200Mbit/s / 120Mbit/s from £23.28 per month to £22.24 per month +vat
2. GEA-FTTP 1800Mbit/s / 120Mbit/s from £30.59 per month to £23.28 per month +vat
“Price changes will be effective from 1 February 2026 until 30 September 2031 (inclusive), which is the end of the Equinox contract period. Prices will be subject to annual increases of CPI – 1.25% or 0%, whichever is highest. There are no changes to any other Equinox terms,” added the briefing.
As usual, it’s important to point out that these are wholesale prices, and they thus do not directly reflect the prices consumers pay at retail for the same service, which is because ISPs still have to add all sorts of extra network features, 20% VAT, the need for a profit margin and more before it becomes the product you purchase.
The move will no doubt be welcomed by most ISPs that use Openreach’s broadband network, as well as consumers who might have been eyeing an upgrade to one of the top tiers (assuming providers do choose to pass any related reductions on to their customers, which seems likely); particularly 1.8Gbps, as the change for 1.2Gbps is fairly small.
Meanwhile, we suspect that some rival networks might well lobby Ofcom against approving the measure, perhaps viewing it as another competitive threat to their existence. But thus far Ofcom has been fairly happy to approve such promotions, and we suspect this one will be much the same.
Advertisement
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.
« Vodafone and Three UK to Cut Jobs from Network Development Division UPDATE
Advertisement
Leave a Reply
Privacy Notice: Please note that news comments are anonymous, which means that we do NOT require you to enter any real personal details to post a message and display names can be almost anything you like (provided they do not contain offensive language or impersonate a real person’s legal name). By clicking to submit a post you agree to storing your entries for comment content, display name, IP and email in our database, for as long as the post remains live.
Only the submitted name and comment will be displayed in public, while the rest will be kept private (we will never share this outside of ISPreview, regardless of whether the data is real or fake). This comment system uses submitted IP, email and website address data to spot abuse and spammers. All data is transferred via an encrypted (https secure) session.
Openreach really are going out with all guns blazing. With their already high FTTP uptake and increasingly cheaper/competitive wholesale pricing, the odds of Altnets being able to turn a profit and repay their investors is getting lower and lower with each offer being presented.
The question is when will the camel’s back so to speak and all we are left with is Openreach and a LOT of failed Altnets and little to no consumer choice.
Someone will buy the assets of the failed companies – just as with the cable companies in the 90s. The people who build telecoms networks are rarely the ones who end up making money from them.
Five of the altnets are showing an operating profit- Community Fibre, CityFibre, Hyperoptic, Fibrus and B4RN. A few of the others are near break-even but a lot of the smaller ones are burning cash. I imagine we’ll see a wave of consolidation in the industry.
There is a big difference between an “operating profit” and actual profit – the latter includes paying the interest on the mountain of accumulated debt.
Damn, it’s a shame I won’t see any discount that on 65/mo EE 1.8gbps contract for a long time until renewal, would be a nice saving :/
never mind I have a £60 a month Aquiss contract that I won’t get getting 6 months half price on – Just the way it goes
Ofcom will approve this, they were happy before alt nets to have one wholesale and retail level competition, so now OR have been forced to build, and are on track for good coverage, they wont care about protecting alt nets moving forward. There will be a gradual removal of any restrictions that were placed.
Let’s assume you are an ISP selling the gigabit package for, say, £30 a month. That £30 is £25 ex-VAT, and you pay £22.24 of that to Openreach.
That leaves £2.76 a month.
£2.76 to cover back end (eg BT Wholesale), the cost of the router, and tech support/customer service. Even with a couple of £4/month annual price rises in the 24 month deal taking the £2.76 to an average of £6.76 over the length of the deal, the profit margins are wafer thin at best.
No wonder TalkTalk is a dead man walking.
Gigabit service won’t be on the 1.2Gbps package.
This is also a sign they are getting ready to bring out the 2.5 and 3.3gbit symmetrical services next year.
Nah Openreach will never sold symmetrical services as their FTTP isn’t 100% full true fibre optic yet.
Are they going to have to upgrade lots of recent ONTs? Not that anyone really needs those speeds, but people will demand it for the bragging factor. As far as I can see, they’re still installing 1Gbps-capable ONTs, so people can’t even truly use a 1.2Gbps service without a hardware upgrade. I thought they’d be putting in 2.5Gbps units by now, but all the new ones I’ve seen (including ours) are still 1Gbps.
Phil, Ben:
Actually Openreach are about to test up to 8.5Gbps in Guildford i think it was. If you check the news yourself you will see its true. Yes they will have to upgrade their old ONT’s but they are going to offer this next year hopefully.
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2025/09/openreach-to-trial-uk-fttp-broadband-speeds-of-8-5gbps-in-q1-2026.html
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2025/05/openreach-doc-hints-at-xgs-pon-fttp-plan-for-3-3gbps-uk-broadband.html
Phil, how is Openreach’s FTTP not FTTP?
Of course it is.
Say what?
How is Openreach’s FTTP not full fibre?
Be specific now.
Openreach offers a 512kbit (sic) service over FTTP. That is as “full fibre” as any other service where the fibre enters your property.
I’m not sure where some people got this idea that it can’t be “full fibre” unless it’s multi gig symmetric (and preferably not GPON)
Wish they offered symmetrical like the altnets
Just ask your ISP to limit your download speed to the same as your upload and then you can be happy in your symmetrical world.
Depends, if they charge more for it, then no thank you.
Openreach FTTP uses 20+ year old GPON technology. It’s asymmetrical, supporting 2.4Gbps downstream and 1.2Gbps upstream, split between up to 64 premises on each shared fibre. Whilst Openreach could probably be a bit more generous in the upload speeds offered than they are at present, if they gave people symmetrical service with the current technology then the upstream would become congested and many people would be compaining that they’re not getting the speeds they pay for.
All the altnets use the more recent XGS-PON standard which supports 10Gbps symmetric speeds on the shared fibre so they can easily offer symmetric service without any fear of oversubscribing their lines.
what a horrible upload speed. Don’t forget it block many websites and so on worst provider ever. No freedom for customer
Well you never use your ISP providers DNS service and always have an active VPN running.
It’s Impossible for an ISP to block a website if the user has a basic understanding.
My understanding is that they block the websites the law requires them to.
Do you have evidence to suggest othwerwise?
Openreach doesn’t block websites. They don’t do very much to traffic passing through their network except for enforcing QoS and provisioned speeds. Your chosen ISP will have to follow any legal requirements placed on them.
It once again needs to be pointed out that most users don’t actually care about upload speed in any real sense, proven by their market leading take up in areas where they face competition. If Openreach are the only choice in your area (which is increasingly true for rural areas) then you’d be silly not to take it.
Hints are that Openreach intends to offer considerably higher upload speeds (including symmetric, though at what cost) when they launch XGS so you won’t have to moan for much longer.
It is also worth noting that some altnets also don’t offer symmetric service.
84.08khz, The ISP blocks by either DNS or IP, usually the former.
The simple answer to this is a VPN and DNS over HTPPS.
If you use DNS over https then the ISP can not even see your DNS traffic requesting the IP of a site and if your VPN points to a different country, then the site is unlikely to pop a javascript ID verification box on your screen for such dangerous sites as Wikipedia and Spotify.