FTTPoD Questions...

OK, I am moving house soon, from a very stable FTTC Infinity 2 (getting a stable 70Mbps) to a slightly more rural location, which although does have FTTC at the cabinet, it looks like the cabinet is in fact at capacity, as it shows a Waiting List, so I am not overly hopeful of getting any sort of FTTC service, as it seems to be a lottery getting a Waiting List slot...

The cabinet is the Dunfermline Cabinet 25

So, my only feasible option seems to be FTTPoD...despite its cost.

So, I know there are a couple of people on here posting their path to FTTPoD, one with Cerebrus and one with FluidOne...

The install prices would more than likely be very similar, but it looks like FluidOne is £300/month, and Cerebrus seems to be almost half that, at about £165/month (I haven't checked, but these are probably excluding VAT, aswell)...

So, a few questions obviously spring to mind...

1. is there a reason for the monthly price differential? Both seem to be unlimited 300/30 services

2. It looks like these are the only two companies offering FTTPoD...are there any others? Are there likely to be more as time goes by? and if so, could this lead to a lowering of prices, or is the (quoted, but depends on individual install circumstances, obviously) £3700 install and £165/£300 per month pretty much standard, and what to expect?

3. In the 3 months or so it will take to survey, install and activate, what are my best options? Simply sign up for a monthly ADSL ISP, so I can cancel anytime? ADSL at my address seems to be looking at giving me about 2Mbps...pretty poor when you are used to 70!!!

I am sure I will think of more questions, but that should be enough to be going on with, but any advice would be very welcome!

Thanks,
Kevin

openreach is changing its pricing of FTTPoD in February time; so I would wait and see what develops rather than locking yourself into a contract at 200-300/pm + £4k install now.

its all a bit up in the air at the moment. also keeping an eye out for FTTPoD (west lothian).

Ah, thanks for that!

Those pricing structure changes certainly do look a lot different from 1st Feb next year...I wasn�t aware of this new pending pricing structure, so I will wait for a couple of months and then see what the quote comes in at...

Also interesting to note the new connection speed options...330/50, 500/165 & 1000/200

Thanks...

Is there any way to determine the distance from the premises to the nearest NGA Aggregation Node?

It looks like this distance will still determine the initial installation cost, as done by a (non binding) order survey...

In reply to a post by KevinM2:

Also interesting to note the new connection speed options...330/50, 500/165 & 1000/200

The Openreach FoD 500 & 1000 Mbps products are NOT new (see here, second table), its just that no ISP is currently selling anything above 330 Mbps - its impossible even to get anything above 330 Mbps on native FTTP despite Openreach announcing these products many moons ago.

In reply to a post by KevinM2:

Is there any way to determine the distance from the premises to the nearest NGA Aggregation Node?

If you get a quote under the current pricing structure, it will mention the 'distance band' (A-K) which will give you a rough idea how far the agg node is. If you want a more accurate answer then you would have to ask an Openreach bod who's aware of the fibre topology in the area (good luck in finding one) and buy one of these and then go for a walk to the AN.

Edited by deleted (Wed 13-Dec-17 12:49:52)