Exmouth Openreach FTTP Rollout Details

I have some information(from Openreach) on the Openreach FTTP rollout for Exmouth. The build is scheduled to start in early 2023 with the aim to cover at least 75% of the town. Early 2023 is not set in stone - could start earlier or later - but that is the current plan.

Yeah, I've noticed that they are planning to rollout, too! Jurassic Fibre has already rolled out to a large part of Exmouth, so I'm surprised OR are planning to, too!

Edited by Grimers (Mon 29-Mar-21 15:30:44)

In reply to a post by Grimers:

Yeah, I've noticed that they are planning to rollout, too! Jurassic Fibre has already rolled out to a large part of Exmouth, so I'm surprised OR are planning to, too!

Why are you surprised?

If someone comes into an area and takes customers away from Openreach, then there is a strong business case for OR to invest to get them back again (i.e. a large incremental revenue and return on investment).

In areas where people have no choice but to use OR's copper services, there is little reason for OR to invest in FTTP, as they will only be stealing customers away from themselves. Customers who get an upgrade from (say) 5Mbps FTTC to 40Mbps FTTP will be very happy, but not paying any more. A small number of customers will pay extra for ultrafast services, but the vast majority are not interested in them.

Ah, I see that makes sense! Could that be why Jurassic Fibre have rolled out in areas where there is slow ADSL and no planned OR FTTP, not like where I live where there are decent FTTC speeds and OR FTTP being rolled out? How come there would be little reason if people with decent FTTC speeds can get OR FTTP?

Edited by Grimers (Mon 29-Mar-21 18:03:57)

Openreach decisions will be made months in advance of any announcement to the public public knowledge - a commercial company will invest in a commercial are -- no big story here --

In urban areas, where capital costs to build are lowest, Ofcom reckons that the market could sustain three different fibre providers. In those areas, they tend to compete on price. Openreach can't sell below its regulated price, so the other providers can undercut them to take business, and still make money.

In other areas, business cases are different. Pent-up demand for a decent service, i.e. stealing business from slow ADSL is an important part - weighed up against the risk that Openreach could also decide to install FTTP at any time (in which case the regulated price puts a *ceiling* on what the competitors can charge). Government grants and vouchers also come into play. I suspect some of these tiny providers are simply hoping to be bought out in a subsequent consolidation.

I see. Thanks for the detailed explanation! I appreciate it.

Think there are probably quite a few areas in Exmouth that aren't covered by Jurassic, I'm about 100 metres from their network and am in central Exmouth. Remember Jurassic only recently announced their 1000th customer which is a tiny figure - even if it were for Exmouth alone.

That's probably the 1000th connected customer, not how many customers they've rolled out to. But, yes, you are right. Looking at the appropriate layer on the TB map, there's a big part of Exmouth that hasn't been covered.

Yes connected.