Not so sure, my impression is people hear FTTP solves your broadband problems and they see FTTP on checker, not knowing the difference between FoD and native FTTP, checker wording is confusing too.

The demand for the top 300 Mbps tiers on Virgin Media and demand on the other FTTH providers for fastest speeds is not over whelming, the purchasing patterns follow a predictable pattern of sell three products, cheap entry, medium and gold plated. The majority go for the middle on almost no matter what the specification (think about it when shopping next and deciding over different brands/own-brand in the supermarket)

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

my impression is people hear FTTP solves your broadband problems and they see FTTP on checker, not knowing the difference between FoD and native FTTP, checker wording is confusing too.

Agree.
But more simply, even if someone has no knowledge of broadband terminology or technical implementation differences, they see a line entry on the BT DSL checker results page that shows a 330 Mbps service as "Available", a number far larger than anything else on offer and that starts them on the path of finding out what it is and how much it will cost.

Whereupon using the search button in the menu here to see if the question has been asked before would save both the enquirer and everyone a lot of time and effort .

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

The demand for the top 300 Mbps tiers on Virgin Media and demand on the other FTTH providers for fastest speeds is not over whelming,

The majority go for the middle on almost no matter what the specification

When VM had tiers of 50, 100 and 200, they had roughly 50% of subscribers below 100Mbps, and 50% on 100Mbps or higher.

That shows that demand for the higher tiers is a maximum of 50% of their subscribers. The real demand might be lower, because some proportion of the TV subscribers will be bundled with higher tiers whether they want them or not.

Currently, VM have 3.7m TV subscribers and 4.9m broadband subscribers, so the number affected could be significant.

In reply to a post by craski:

a number far larger than anything else on offer and that starts them on the path of finding out what it is and how much it will cost.

And, once they find out the price, tend to take it no further.

The phenomenon is repeated in Australia, where 80% of FTTP users have chosen the bottom two tiers (12/1 and 25/5 speeds). As Mr Saffron notes about purchasing behaviour, the largest group is the second one...
https://s28.postimg.org/mbig9znsd/NBN-_Package_Mix-2...

That pattern is almost identical on the VDSL2 tech.

In reply to a post by WWWombat:

In reply to a post by craski:

a number far larger than anything else on offer and that starts them on the path of finding out what it is and how much it will cost.

And, once they find out the price, tend to take it no further.

The phenomenon is repeated in Australia, where 80% of FTTP users have chosen the bottom two tiers (12/1 and 25/5 speeds). As Mr Saffron notes about purchasing behaviour, the largest group is the second one...
https://s28.postimg.org/mbig9znsd/NBN-_Package_Mix-2...

That pattern is almost identical on the VDSL2 tech.

It is a pity that the link does not show the pricing, because that presumably has a big impact on what people choose.

In reply to a post by Michael_Chare:

It is a pity that the link does not show the pricing, because that presumably has a big impact on what people choose.

I just checked with iinet.net.au, and it seems like
- AUS$70pm for unlimited data at 12/1.
- AUS$80pm for unlimited data at 25/5.
- AUS$100pm for unlimited data at 100/40.

That's £40, £46 and £58. The call packages vary across those options, with the middle package being quite generous; to get the same call package alongside the 100/40 speed actually costs AUS$110pm

Well thank you form the reply. I do suspect that the way the pricing works, makes the 25/5 option a popular choice.

Tough to compare against the UK as the wages and amenities tend to be higher.

Tough to compare against the UK in an absolute sense, but I wasn't trying to.

The real comparison is the relative cost of the different service levels, where the jump from 12/1 to 25/5 is £6 and the jump from 25/5 to 100/40 is £12.

Here, Plusnet prices increase by £5 from an ADSL2+ service to 40/2 fibre, and then another £5 from 40/2 to 80/20 fibre.

In both countries, a mere extra £5 or £10 per month (or so) is enough to make people think again.