UK ISP BT Retail has just announced that customers who take a bundle of its more traditional broadband and calls (BT Total Broadband Options 2 and 3) will be offered the chance to upgrade to BT Infinity, the company’s 'up to' 40Mb FTTC fibre optic based "super-fast" broadband service, for no extra monthly cost when it becomes available in their area.

It's noted that customers who subscribe to the BT Total Broadband Option 1 bundle can also take advantage of the offer for a small additional monthly cost. BT Infinity Option 1 bundles have a one-off £25 activation fee, while Option 2 and 3 offer that for FREE. As an added incentive to new customers, BT are offering free line connection for those who take a phone and broadband or phone, broadband and TV bundle.


BT's Fibre-to-the-Cabinet technology ( FTTC ) delivers a fast fibre optic cable to the operators street level cabinets, while the remaining connection - between cabinets and homes - is done using VDSL2 (similar to current ADSL broadband but faster over short distances) through existing copper cable. The service can currently reach more than 1.5m UK premises and should cover 40% of the UK in 2012, rising to 66% during 2015.


However we do note that BT recently slashed the price of its 'Infinity' product via a new bundle (here), thus bringing it closer to the cost of their traditional broadband packages. As a result today's news is more of a natural evolution in bringing the two broadband platforms closer together.