THe 2/3rds commercial roll-out from Openreach has one last batch of exchange areas to announce and that is done. That takes them to 2/3rds.

The BDUK money is unlikely to affect the various FTTP projects that are cropping up, particularly as they offer much much faster speeds.

It cannot surely be a fixed point. Costs can change particularly with new technology. Remember CD players at one time cost about £1000. Take up can also increase which will move the goalposts

Not sure when CD players cost £1000 my first was in 1986 at £300.

The commercial roll-outs, they are meant to give a statement under NDA of their various plans for the next three years. If you bother to read you will see areas conducting a open market reviews which are precisely this.

Having read about the pilots for BDUK, I agree with this - that the change in prices will be taken into account (as far as a prediction is accurate) over the next 3 years of installation.

The clawback - that allows subsidies to be redistributed to other projects - then monitors the *actual* costs for 7 years.

Right now though - the whole BDUK process will have made everyone (BT and councils especially) focus on the viability formulae, and costs, over those 3 years. That focus is good in one respect (it gets things going) but bad in another (it temporarily removes any flexibility in the system).

We may start to get flexibility back when most BDUK work is under way, and the plans need to be made for the 2015-2020 period (where some councils have targets for 100% NGA coverage)