WBC FTTP availability confusion

My parents' house has always had lousy internet speeds - being about 4km (straight-line) from the exchange, they can only get a rather unreliable 1.5Mbps over ADSL2+, and being nearly 3km from their cabinet VDSL is not an option. However, about a year ago the small business about 400m up the road from them had FTTP through BT installed at enormous cost, and they've recently noticed over the summer that the telephone pole about 150m from their property now has a bunch of fibre-looking kit installed on it.

My dad also went and had a chat with an OR engineer who was up the pole at one point, who basically told him "Yeah, you'll never get better speeds than you currently have out here, not without dropping £10k on a fibre install" (probably just to get rid of him!)

However, they then noticed before Christmas that the where-and-when checker says: "Great news, you can order a Fibre to the Premises service today", though AAISP, BT, Cerberus, Spectrum, Structured Communications, Syscomm or Zen. The BT broadband available checker says that WBC FTTP is available with a 1 stage install. So, what does that all mean? They can just go ahead and order it? What about the enormous installation cost - is that only applicable for "FTTP on demand"? I don't think I understand the difference; Presumably an OR engineer would still have to rig a bit of fibre from the pole through the air to their property? BT's product page doesn't seem to mention any installation costs on https://www.bt.com/broadband/deals/

See https://imgur.com/a/8KWe9if for the BT broadband available checker results and photos of the pole.

If they really can just go ahead and order it with no crazy installation costs or anything, they'd want to know what the cheapest option is that they could choose that would actually work. So (if through BT for example) they wouldn't choose "Broadband" as that would just be the same as what they have now, and presumably "Superfast Fibre", "Superfast Fibre 2" and "Superfast Fibre Plus" are all just VDSL, so would be unavailable to them? That would mean it would have to be one of the "Ultrafast Fibre" or "Ultrafast Fibre 2" options? Are they both the same thing apart from the speed difference? Would they keep their copper connection for voice calls?

Thanks for reading, and please pardon my ignorance on all this. I'm clearly well out of the loop on all the new advancements in broadband provisioning!

They can order FTTP without a huge install cost.
It's there, showing available to order.

You don't need to take the higher packages on FTTP. They can order the smaller packages also.

Make sure the telephone number also shows WBC FTTP available if they want to keep their existing number.

edit: to clarify, if I ordered Supefast Fibre from BT it would be "up to" 55Mb VDSL2 (FTTC).
If your parents order SuperFast Fibre from BT it will be 55Mb FTTP.

Not sure if BT still do a 40Mb package but it doesn't show for me.

Edited by j0hn83 (Fri 28-Dec-18 03:08:10)

In reply to a post by Vzzbux:

See https://imgur.com/a/8KWe9if for the BT broadband available checker results and photos of the pole.

Yes your old folks can order native FTTP. However something to be aware of (according to the screenshot above):

"Our records show the following FTTP network service information for these premises:-Single Dwelling Unit Residential OH Feed with Line of sight problems Trees."

This means Openreach may have to remove dense trees/vegetation which could add extra costs & time. If ordering through BT Retail they would most likely waive any excess costs, however the smaller ISPs (Zen, IDNet, AAISP et al) would amost certainly pass this cost onto your folks which could be anything from £500 to £1000s depending on what they were charged by BT/Openreach.

Brilliant, thanks very much! I think the prices for the higher speeds (which they don't really need) are probably a bit steep for them, so the 55Mb package would be a more sensible and affordable option.

Hmm, I can't use their existing number to check as they're not with BT so it just shows it as number not found.

I'm still confused as to why there's the huge up-front cost for FTTP on demand, but not for WBC. Any idea if they'd retain the copper connection for voice calls if they got FTTP?

They can keep the copper line yes.
With BT they could also run the voice over the fibre.

FTTPoD is so expensive as it is ordering fibre where this is none.

WBC FTTP isn't expensive as the kit is there already.
Someone paid for it, be it OpenReach or BDUK, but certainly not your parents.

Yes, I noticed that too. I assume they'd just run it over the poles alongside the copper line?
Thanks for the heads-up, it seems BT retail is their best option then.

My folks did mention speaking to someone else who was there doing some kind of fibre survey, and they were talking about how they'd probably have to close the road to be able to do anything (it's on a busy dual-carriageway, with the poles quite close to the road). I think they took that to mean another reason why it would never happen.

I wonder to what extent the majority of costs of getting WBC FTTP to the area have been basically subsidised by the small business ordering FTTP (on demand?) last year.

As it�s showing as WBC FTTP available then all you will pay is the standard activation charge. You will not have to pay any extra construction charges to have the vegetation removed.

In reply to a post by Darkfibre:

As it�s showing as WBC FTTP available then all you will pay is the standard activation charge. You will not have to pay any extra construction charges to have the vegetation removed.

Not always. Excess Construction Charges (ECCs) do apply to WBC FTTP enabled properties, albeit to a very small %. You can only be 100% sure no ECCs will apply if Openreach have already done a site survey and updated the checker with "no anticipated issues" under the speeds table (eg new builds) or you can see for yourself on the ground that there's no obvious obstacles between the fibre DP and your property. if the DSL checker shows "unknown" or "problem" status under the FTTP conditions then there's always the risk (no matter how small) of ECCs being applied, once someone from Openreach has been out and done the survey. And if (big if) ECCs do apply, then the likes of BT Retail are less likely to pass them on to the customer than the smaller ISPs.

Edited by deleted (Wed 02-Jan-19 13:24:11)

In reply to a post by Darkfibre:

As it�s showing as WBC FTTP available then all you will pay is the standard activation charge. You will not have to pay any extra construction charges to have the vegetation removed.

That's quite an assumption especially with the DSL checker showing OH feed with anticipated issues.

I've seen excess construction charges / ECC's on WBC FTTP a number of times.

Agreed John, Openreach aren�t responsible for the punters trees.