Cerb FTTPoD first year monthly pricing. any better options?

Hi.
Moving house next week. Expect to see 25 - 30mbps VDSL.
FTTPoD desktop quote come back at £25,900, 13 premises passed. Some of them will be wealthy people.. few big pads on that road.
In due course, I might consider getting in touch with people and seeing if they want to go together on it.
It's rural, so small govt voucher still available, more so if done through my IT support business possibly.

I suppose if it happened, I would need a solicitor to collect and store people's money in escrow or something and prevent people pulling out after the order is placed leaving me footing the whole bill and them still getting the benefit of FTTP availability.

One thing I'm not sure of though, is, as you will all know, Cerberus put you on 330/30 for £100 + vat (£120) per month for the first 12 months, but all of those other premises-passed could just sign up to Talktalk 500Mbps for £40 + vat once the build has been done for me. That sort of sucks a bit for me...

Are there any better options available? Providers who don't want £100+vat per month for the first year?

Edited by deleted (Sat 17-Oct-20 11:34:50)

Cerberus or one of their resellers is your only option - they do now have a range of prices available:

40/2Mbps FoD Basic: £38.00 Monthly**
115/20Mbps FoD Plus: £75.00 Monthly**
300/30Mbps FoD Pro: £90.00 Monthly**
450/75Mbps FoD XL2: £115.00 Monthly**
900/115Mbps FoD Ultra2: £145.00 Monthly**

Yes you will be paying more than your neighbours for the first 12 months but if they contribute to the project cost then don't worry about it. I paid the whole cost for my FTTPoD installation and 3 of the other 6 neighbours have now taken up the service - I don't begrudge them paying less than me.

In reply to a post by brookheather:

Cerberus or one of their resellers is your only option - they do now have a range of prices available:

40/2Mbps FoD Basic: £38.00 Monthly**
115/20Mbps FoD Plus: £75.00 Monthly**
300/30Mbps FoD Pro: £90.00 Monthly**
450/75Mbps FoD XL2: £115.00 Monthly**
900/115Mbps FoD Ultra2: £145.00 Monthly**

Yes you will be paying more than your neighbours for the first 12 months but if they contribute to the project cost then don't worry about it. I paid the whole cost for my FTTPoD installation and 3 of the other 6 neighbours have now taken up the service - I don't begrudge them paying less than me.

So it doesn't have to be 330/30 for the first 12 months? I could start off at 115/20 for £75+vat per month for the first 12 months? TBH they need a 80/20 in there for £60 + vat.

In reply to a post by carl0s:

So it doesn't have to be 330/30 for the first 12 months? I could start off at 115/20 for £75+vat per month for the first 12 months?

That's correct, the extra tiers were recently introduced. At the same time they reduced 300/30 from £100 to £90.

In reply to a post by carl0s:

TBH they need a 80/20 in there for £60 + vat.

If you cross-reference to the standard FTTP price list, you'll find all the FTTPoD tiers are £35+VAT higher. In effect you're paying a flat fee of £420+VAT to Cerberus for managing the FTTPoD process, spread over 12 monthly installments. Speaking as someone whose FTTPoD journey took more than 17 months, I think they earned it

Using this formula, if they offered 80/20 it would cost £72+VAT. So you might as well take the 115/20, with a nice speed boost for almost the same price.

I think that 150/30 would have been a desirable level to offer - perhaps they don't because it would dissuade some people from taking 300/30. I don't know why they can't do 300/50 for FTTPoD; Openreach offer it, but maybe BT wholesale don't. Perhaps it is to encourage power users to go for 450/70 instead.

Note about the 40/2 FoD Basic: it comes with a 24 month contract. The others are 12 months.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

In reply to a post by carl0s:

So it doesn't have to be 330/30 for the first 12 months? I could start off at 115/20 for £75+vat per month for the first 12 months?

That's correct, the extra tiers were recently introduced. At the same time they reduced 300/30 from £100 to £90.

In reply to a post by carl0s:

TBH they need a 80/20 in there for £60 + vat.

If you cross-reference to the standard FTTP price list, you'll find all the FTTPoD tiers are £35+VAT higher. In effect you're paying a flat fee of £420+VAT to Cerberus for managing the FTTPoD process, spread over 12 monthly installments. Speaking as someone whose FTTPoD journey took more than 17 months, I think they earned it

Using this formula, if they offered 80/20 it would cost £72+VAT. So you might as well take the 115/20, with a nice speed boost for almost the same price.

I think that 150/30 would have been a desirable level to offer - perhaps they don't because it would dissuade some people from taking 300/30. I don't know why they can't do 300/50 for FTTPoD; Openreach offer it, but maybe BT wholesale don't. Perhaps it is to encourage power users to go for 450/70 instead.

Note about the 40/2 FoD Basic: it comes with a 24 month contract. The others are 12 months.

Good info, thanks, and yes I agree it's a fair fee for taking on the job. Would be nice if it could be split on a shared order or something mind you.

“ In effect you're paying a flat fee of £420+VAT to Cerberus for managing the FTTPoD process, spread over 12 monthly installments.”

Recall there was someone recently claiming they were being charged an upfront connection charge by Cerberus, that was something similar to the amount noted above.

Don’t know if that’s a new thing, it certainly wasn’t when I had mine agreed back in 2018.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Recall there was someone recently claiming they were being charged an upfront connection charge by Cerberus, that was something similar to the amount noted above.

Don’t know if that’s a new thing, it certainly wasn’t when I had mine agreed back in 2018.

I think this is the post you mean:
https://forums.thinkbroadband.com/fibre/t/4658128-re...

That was for six linked orders, and included 6 x £500 "Cerberus commissioning charge". In that post there was no indication given that there would be a corresponding reduction in the monthly service charge.

That's the one. Yes most certainly no reduction in the monthly charge. Those connection charges (BT and Cerberus) per property of £995 were a bit of a surprise. Maybe its a (new?) linked order thing. Suffice to say they didn't proceed in any event.

Yes - that was me and we didn't go ahead. This £500 Cerberus commissioning charge is a bit of a mystery as it doesn't appear on any of their published price lists and nobody else has seen it. But the BT £495 isn't published either.

In reply to a post by Nick_W789:

Yes - that was me and we didn't go ahead. This £500 Cerberus commissioning charge is a bit of a mystery as it doesn't appear on any of their published price lists and nobody else has seen it. But the BT £495 isn't published either.

Did you ask Cerberus for more info about it and explain that you are in contact will other Cerberus customers who were never charged that Cerberus commissioning fee.

I had a phone call from one of their directors - I asked and he said it was for setting up their systems. I didn't argue - our situation was slightly unusual in that we have 70MB/S FTTC so were looking at FTTP as a nice to have if it could be covered by the rural vouchers. With the BT quote coming in higher than expected plus £1K Cerberus and BT commissioning that seemed unlikely, and I had also found Cerberus not the easiest to deal with.

In reply to a post by Nick_W789:

I had a phone call from one of their directors - I asked and he said it was for setting up their systems. I didn't argue - our situation was slightly unusual in that we have 70MB/S FTTC so were looking at FTTP as a nice to have if it could be covered by the rural vouchers. With the BT quote coming in higher than expected plus £1K Cerberus and BT commissioning that seemed unlikely, and I had also found Cerberus not the easiest to deal with.

Am I missing something? they give £700 for each linked order then immediately take £500 of it for the Cerberus commissioning which they say is for setting up the linked order as I don't believe its been seen on any individual Cerberus FTTPod orders.

Edited by deleted (Mon 19-Oct-20 13:50:32)

The £700 is from Openreach as Openreach's contribution to the cost of the PON (passive optical network). It's in the Openreach price list as "FTTP on demand build charge exemption per PON"

There is also £50 for each property "passed", i.e. which will gain FTTP service availability as a result of the build.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

The £700 is from Openreach as Openreach's contribution to the cost of the PON (passive optical network). It's in the Openreach price list as "FTTP on demand build charge exemption per PON"

There is also £50 for each property "passed", i.e. which will gain FTTP service availability as a result of the build.

The point I was making is Cerberus are taking an additional £3,000 + vat on this 6 property linked FTTPod order and calling it 'Cerberus commissioning' but 'Cerberus commissioning' is not present on single FTTPod orders.

As it isn't shown on any published price list, it is difficult to tell whether it only applies to linked orders, is a new charge or one they tried to introduce but abandoned.