FTTC - 18/2 Mbps SPECIAL OFFER

BT Openreach Trial 18Mbps FTTC Broadband Speed for Slow ADSL Lines

https://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/updates/briefi...

In reply to a post by adslmax:

BT Openreach Trial 18Mbps FTTC Broadband Speed for Slow ADSL Lines

https://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/updates/briefi...

I suspect this will be to encourage people away from exchange based services but not commit to a higher priced monthly fee. If any ISP's offer this, I reckon it'll be priced the same as their ADSL offerings.

18/2 are probably won't last long cos of crosstalk will reduced those speed!

Not quite. I suspect most of the customers they will be targeting will have lines capable of much faster speeds than 18/2. Much like those who opt for 40/10 when they have a max achievable rate of 70+.

The 18/2 will just be a "cap" like all other Openreach products.

You are basing your statement here on a presumption - that most who want this speed are on long lines. This is a flawed presumption.

I know my property can only get 7-8Mb on ADSL. It just so happens to have an enabled cabinet serving it, and so I opted to go for a 40/10 unlimited VDSL. Even running at 40/10, I still have a ton load of headroom on the line, and when I was running it on 80/20, I got full 20 upload with around 70 download.

What is my point here?

My point is, there are probably some people out there on a similar setup of line, that don't want a 40/10 connection, but also don't want a slower 8Mb connection either. This product fits nicely in the middle. Further more, if the price point is down at ADSL prices, then I can definitely see people opting for this package - it's a nice reasonably fast connection, cheap, will have loads of headroom and so.... in retrospect of your statement here - I doubt cross talk will impact it at all, and for the most part, it will probably be more reliable than the fastest ADSL connection they could get on the same line.

EDIT: Having said all that, the article says:

Eligibility
The special offer pricing will only be available for those end customers with slow lines that we can identify on eligible cabinets. We are expected to publish details of those initial cabinets and eligible lines on 15 April 2016. While we hold the right to modify cabinet eligibility lists, we do not expect to remove eligible cabinets once published and approved for special offer. The special offer is not available to SIM only provides.

I guess it comes down to what they mean by "slow lines". If that applies to lines like mine (described above) then great. If not, looks like they will limit orders on such lines to the higher speed packages like 40/2, 40/10, 55/10, 80/20 as they will only be offering the 18/2 on specific cabinets.

Edited by deleted (Fri 15-Apr-16 16:02:42)

I get your point. Personally, with only 2 of us in this house while 6meg is fine for most of what we need, there are times when a bit more would do. 18/2 would be more than enough for what we use it for right now and if it were available, would probably be the package I'd go for.

What you're saying is spot on regards of crosstalk affecting the speeds, most lines will be able to get way more than 18meg so even if crosstalk did affect the line, it would be unlikely to impact it so much that it caused the sync to drop below the cap of 18meg.

However, for now, during the special offer price at least, Openreach have stated that this won't be available to all lines, only ones that they have selected from enabled cabinets that have a "poor ADSL experience". What they class as poor hasn't been defined.

Yes, I just updated my post after reading the article. Probably should have done that before I posted.

The special offer pricing will only be available for those end customers with slow lines that we can identify on eligible cabinets. We are expected to publish details of those initial cabinets and eligible lines on 15 April 2016.

To me that means people who can get significantly above 18Mbps will not be able to order this product.

There is also the question as to which ISPs will decide to retail it anyway.

If it helps move everybody off ADSL/ADSL2+ does that help the ANFP to be simplified and be a benefit in the long term?

BT wholesale aren't taking part in this trial so ISPs which rely on them can't participate..