It is indeed however as far as FTTP goes the costs of deployment are considerably lower if BT's assets can be reused.

The BSG report on FTTP deals with this. It should be remembered that to BT FTTP is an overbulid; it may require elements of new building but it is an overbuild. When most of the cost of a deployment is civil engineering rather than materials or, as in the case of housing, the land it's built on, being able to use existing ducting is a huge bonus.

The only manner in which existing 'stuff' works against BT is Ofcom's obsession with copper and LLU making the business case less clear. If you can happily charge the prices Openreach do for copper that paid for itself years ago why spend money overbuilding?

You've also got MDUs included when Openreach does not seem to provide a FTTP solution for MDUs.

They do. I'm soon to move in to a new build development in south London that has native Openreach FTTP built in. Two friends are also in the process of moving into new builds (one in Southwark, one in Greenwich) both of which have Openreach FTTP from the off. The addresses are all in the system and lit up for WBC FTTP before the blocks are even being occupied.

Sadly I expect many people moving in will check their lines/addresses with Sky/TT/everyone except BT Retail, be told they are "not in a fibre area" as there's no FTTC, and accept an exchange-only ADSL based service estimated at <6 megabits. So lack of ISP options is a major problem.

(Incidentally, the communications manager at the site told me there's no copper to the flats so I've no idea how that will work, even though the Openreach checker claims it's available)

But anyway, on topic, making sure that all large new build developments have FTTP as these ones do would be a good start, that and sorting out the ISPs. FTTP in brownfield flats still seems like a bit of a nightmare.

But those will be large developments and the cost of the FTTP rollout might be funded by the developer.

I'm talking about small MDUs (brownfield sites) - say 3-10 apartments in areas where the houses next door can get FTTP. You'll find that the MDU occupants cannot order FTTP, much to their frustration.

I would imagine on large new greenfield sites, the cost of putting in fibre vs copper will be quite comparable. The issue though, is going to be getting the fibre from the exchange to the new development. If it's a long distance and the ducting is in a poor state, then it could be extremely costly for Openreach.