FTTPod prohibitively expensive, a leased line is cheaper!

Back in 2019 we had FTTPod installed at our offices in the Kentish countryside, and it has been fantastic, particularly during the covid lockdown periods when it allowed our staff to work from home much more efficiently. It cost £9K and the company next-door and ourselves both qualified for £3k government vouchers, so we ended up paying 1.5k each, Cerberus Internet handled the joint FTTPod order and we are still with them 6 years later which says a lot about their reliability . 3 other houses have since been connected to the same CBT we paid to have installed, which makes it even more worthwhile.

I have been patiently waiting for FTTP to become available at home on the outskirts of Tunbridge Wells, the Openreach availability tracker pushed the dates out and out and now just says 'Not yet available', with no sign we will get it any time soon and no way to ask.

Being virtually the only area in TW that has no 'gigabit' service I contacted the alt-nets that are local, Netomnia and Trooli but they were not interested in covering our enclave of ~130 houses

So I went back to Cerberus to ask them about FTTPod and they came back with a desk survey price of £22.3k (not sure if that includes VAT), now I knew that Openreach had put the prices up, but given that existing FTTP is <300mup the road and I know there are ducts and poles in place to our house, this was a bit of a shock.

For a comparison I asked a few suppliers for a quote for a 1G leased line. For a 12 month contract they do want to charge installation buts its 'only' £2.7k + VAT, and if we went for a 36 month contract it's free! Yes, the leased line will cost more per month (~£280+VAT) but if myself and a couple of neighbours share the 1G line it rapidly becomes quite similar to the cost of a fast FTTP service, plus it's symmetrical and has a decent Service Level Agreement.

Even paying for a 3-year contract on a 1G leased line on my own, the total after 3 years would still be less than half the install cost of FTTPod!

Yes FTTPoD has been insanely expensive for a few years now. The pricing structure actively discourages folks from ordering it now. Openreach really don't want to be doing it, their resources being too contrasted on the normal FTTP mass deployment.

Leased circuits / DIA are tempting - just make sure of the pricing structure, especially annual inflationary (and other!) prices increases which are now reasonably commonplace. It was once the case that these prices were fixed for the term of the agreement, but no longer and these can have a significant sting in the tail. Make sure you get a copy of the contract and read it thoroughly before signing.

Also check what the situation is with 'sharing' the connection with your neighbours before you order it.

I've been through most of this, including FFTPoD like yourself back in 2018 and I've also had several leased circuits installed from a variety of providers both in central London and Suffolk, so am aware of the pitfalls with ECCs etc. So am happy to share with you my experiences without any agenda.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Leased circuits / DIA are tempting - just make sure of the pricing structure, especially annual inflationary (and other!) prices increases which are now reasonably commonplace. It was once the case that these prices were fixed for the term of the agreement, but no longer and these can have a significant sting in the tail. Make sure you get a copy of the contract and read it thoroughly before signing.

Also carefully check the renewal terms. I've seen several contracts which auto-renew for 12 month periods, and to stop this happening you must give notice at least 90 days *before* the start of the renewal period. Basically, by the time you get near to end of contract and start thinking about what to do next, it's too late. So make sure you have a calendar reminder at least 4 months before.

I agree that FTTPoD is priced out of all reality now. You also have to remember that even though you have to pay the whole amount up-front, there are no guarantees on delivery times - mine took nearly 18 months from start to end. Leased lines generally are much faster to install, since they don't receive any revenue until it's running.

Thanks for the advice.
I have asked about the renewal terms.

Thanks for the advice and your experience.
I have asked for a copy of the terms and about in contract price increases.
I'll report back

For a 12 month contract they do want to charge installation buts its 'only' £2.7k + VAT,

I'have had several leased lines installed at my work and this is a typical install cost but subject to survey so it may in practice be higher.

In reply to a post by MarkLeman:

Thanks for the advice and your experience.
I have asked for a copy of the terms and about in contract price increases.
I'll report back

Who are you thinking of going with?

Check with them regarding sharing or sub-letting your connection with neighbours / etc. also.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Leased circuits / DIA are tempting - just make sure of the pricing structure, especially annual inflationary (and other!) prices increases which are now reasonably commonplace. It was once the case that these prices were fixed for the term of the agreement, but no longer and these can have a significant sting in the tail. Make sure you get a copy of the contract and read it thoroughly before signing.

Also carefully check the renewal terms. I've seen several contracts which auto-renew for 12 month periods, and to stop this happening you must give notice at least 90 days *before* the start of the renewal period. Basically, by the time you get near to end of contract and start thinking about what to do next, it's too late. So make sure you have a calendar reminder at least 4 months before.

I agree that FTTPoD is priced out of all reality now. You also have to remember that even though you have to pay the whole amount up-front, there are no guarantees on delivery times - mine took nearly 18 months from start to end. Leased lines generally are much faster to install, since they don't receive any revenue until it's running.

There's a good chance that the OP will be able to leverage some of their investment in FTTPoD here - similar to us in Suffolk - Openreach used the FTTP infrastructure that we paid for in 2018 to actually deliver the leased circuit. Just not the serving CBT. It definitely made the business case otherwise our ECCs would have been prohibitive.

Different matter entirely in London, where although there is patchy Operneach FTTP coverage across the metropolis (right now anyway) there is *plenty* of other fibre in the ground and even then running to the nearest node will easily be covered by the ECC cover that most providers absorb for a 3 year deal.

In reply to a post by bsdnazz:

For a 12 month contract they do want to charge installation buts its 'only' £2.7k + VAT,

I'have had several leased lines installed at my work and this is a typical install cost but subject to survey so it may in practice be higher.

Yep. They will typically absorb around £3K in ECCs on a longer term agreement (3 years). In some cases for shorter agreements too.

Just be very caveat emptor with all these agreements though as said. They are very expensive to buy yourself out of if the provider isn't up to snuff or service is terrible.

Its not all sweet smelling roses with leased circuits / DIA providers.

There's a good chance that the OP will be able to leverage some of their investment in FTTP here

I believe from previous posts in this forum that the 'barrier' which Openreach used to have between their FTTP and leased line infrastructure is more permeable these days, so I suspect the leased line we are looking at could end up sharing some part of the backhaul installed for FTTP to the exchange.

I find this so frustrating, I would be really happy with FTTP(*) and not have the bother of installing a leased line, and FTTP is available less than 300m up the road, but £22.3k for FTTPod is daft especially given that I know it should be a relatively straightforward job.

*ideally from an alt-net with more upload speed but even Openreach's frustratingly asymmetric offerings would do.

I spoke to some guys who were checking the ducts that lead to our road about 12months ago, they were rodding and installing new pull ropes, so they are probably clear. Also Openreach installed a new access chamber and ducting at the end of our road, to repair my analogue line about 24months ago + they installed new poles in our road a while back. So getting the fibre from the pole to where the existing FTTP is, and hence back to the nearest aggregation node should be straightforward.

I suspect Openreach are not interested in rolling out FTTP at the moment because some of the surrounding roads are probably probably direct buried cable which makes things more difficult/expensive, they are looking to do large blocks for least effort, and whilst there are ~138 houses with no access to fibre in the roads around my house it's not easy enough to be on their priority list .

Edited by MarkLeman (Thu 27-Mar-25 09:57:22)