Could be worse. 2 new estates in my town have a full FTTP network but it's owned and ran by a company called See The Light. There is no BT/Openreach network at all. You either have to subscribe to See The Light for calls and broadband or you go without.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

.. Other suppliers are already in the head end exchanges, have the links there (for FTTC) why not offer an FTTP based service ? It's a good product, why limit what you can offer your customers ?

Two obvious reasons spring to mind:

1) As the number of customers able to order a Openreach based native FTTP service on the whole are relatively very few, it doesn't make financial sense for the ISP to spend £1000s to train staff and develop ordering systems which will potentially benefit very few customers.

and/or

2) Based on some of the horror stories you hear about some FTTP installations by Openreach, it may be that Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone et al don't trust Openreach to install FTTP within a reasonable (4 weeks?) time frame. Obviously in the case of FTTP installation delays, the punter will blame the ISP when clearly Openreach will often be the cause.

I get that, somewhat.

However it�s ironic that the ISP�s not yet offering the services are the ones whinging that Openreach don�t provide customers with fibre connections to give them access to better speeds.

+1

Ok ladies and gentlemen, I've spoken to BT and this has given me more questions than answers.

The lady in the FTTP Connections department told me my only option was BT as they had 'made an investment in the development'. When I pointed out that it sounded like BT had monopolised my choice as a consumer, she said 'other suppliers had the opportunity to provide a service but had chosen not to'.

This concerns me. Does this mean that it's BT and not Openreach who provide the line in this scenario? If it's Openreach, I don't see how they can legally do this, as it was my understanding is that they had to offer their infrastructure to wholesale. I'm hoping someone here can shed some light on this

I've raised a complaint as I strongly feel that I shouldn't be penalised for a decision I had no control over in my choice of supplier.

I'm tempted to request a copy of the conversation, none of this feels right or honest.

Nope, BT and a few smaller BTw based ISP� are the only ones who have opted to provide service over the FTTP infrastructure that Openreach provided at the developers requests.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

There is a no phone line wholesale product

I never said there was.

Paul

It�s Openreach and is offered wholesale. It�s just not many providers have taken them up on it. We don�t know why.

If you limit yourself to the big five providers, then the choice is just BT and this is something like 93 to 95% of the market for broadband in the UK.

There are smaller providers as others have pointed out who can supply, issue seems to be they don't reach the price point you want.

If you were talking to someone in BT Consumer FTTP connections, I don't know why you would expect them to give you a list of their competitors? Does Sky do the same?

If you were talking to someone working for Openreach (and all those that are have been TUPE now into Openreach) then rules were broken, to the extant that maybe this may have missed the caveat about the large providers.

So Openreach infrastructure is made available at the wholesale level, and I think there is some misunderstanding being made by you, and not helped perhaps by those answering your question on the phone.

I�m in a similar situation, except I�m delighted to be getting the opportunity to get FTTP! Bit annoying about the lack of provider choice, but I�m hoping that�s temporary and will come in time as FTTP does seem to be expanding more and more.

Id say what you were told isn�t true

From my understanding, someone can correct me if I�m wrong here:

- Openreach install/own the fibre (like they would the copper lines)
- BT Wholesale offer a wholesale fibre to the premises product that any ISP can take up
- Limited ISPs offer a service on the BTwholesale product, but they all have the opportunity if they wish. some have, only 3 or 4 I think? Annoying, very much so!

Saying BT has made an investment is fine, but it sounds like they�re generalising �BT� with the 3 separate Openreach/wholesale/retail companies which can be interpreted easily in the wrong way... as it won�t be bt wholesale or bt retail who have stumped up the money to put in the fibre