In reply to a post by candlerb:

However the time window for FTTPoD relevance is rapidly shrinking. It might take 12 months from ordering FTTPoD to getting live service, sometimes more. In the meanwhile, Openreach is now saying it will cover 80% of the country with native FTTP by December 2026. So you might be buying yourself a service that only gets used for a year or two.

Moving house to where FTTP exists *today* guarantees that you get service right away, but restricts your choice greatly - only about 15% of properties have it currently.

Agreed. If I can amortise the cost over 5 years (before FTTP would have perhaps otherwise become natively available), then the cost paid to construct in my opinion will have been reasonable.

With the apparent step change in FOD construction cost last year (a floor price of £8K before VAT) in my opinion coupled with a potential shorter payback period now makes it too unattractive. The loss of the “single applicant” GBVS credit pretty much is the nail in the coffin.

What about a 'leased line' ?.

For a leased line, installation time can be as low as 3-4 months. Service will be top notch, with guaranteed bandwidth up and down. However you can expect to pay at least £300 per month with a 3 year contract.

Assuming you'd be paying £50 per month for FTTP anyway, that's a £3K per year premium and a minimum £9K commitment. For a business, or work-from-home where you can treat it like you would a season ticket, it may be worth it.

For a general home user though, I'd say it's a losing bet:

- if native FTTP arrives sooner than 3 years, then you've paid over the odds
- if native FTTP arrives later than 3 years, then you'll continue to pay over the odds until it arrives

Well its 18 odd (December 2019 i started it) months on since i did a field survey quote with Cerberus which came back in Jan 2020 at £8,640 + Vat. 4 Houses passed(desktop was £6,800 + Vat)

Couldn't bring myself to pay it back then.

Fast forward to now and Leicestershire although moved abit forward with some FTTP most places are set for completion 2026 and my village (Ibstock) isn't even included in that.

I can see the 2026 timeframe slipping as well.

So decided to go and get another quote from Cerberus. Desktop this time was a little cheaper at £6k + Vat.

Field survey came back today at £8660 + Vat so almost completely the same for everyone's reference.

Although its a crazy amount of money I am going to move ahead and pay it! Madness but no amount of pestering to OR, virgin media, the council or leicestershire (VERY pointless) superfast team is going to change FTTP is ALONG way away

One question im sure someone here will know the answer. I am going to go onto the Cerberus 300/30 package.

Obviously i will be with that for 12 months but after that will i be able to upgrade to 1gb fibre?

In reply to a post by LordVader:

One question im sure someone here will know the answer. I am going to go onto the Cerberus 300/30 package.

Obviously i will be with that for 12 months but after that will i be able to upgrade to 1gb fibre?

Yes indeed - either from Cerberus or any other FTTP provider.

I stuck with Cerberus and moved from 300/30 to 300/50. 300/30 is something of an anomaly from the way that BT Wholesale provide FTTPoD.

But will I be able to order 500mb/1gb fibre from other providers after when it's swaps to native FTTP

In reply to a post by LordVader:

But will I be able to order 500mb/1gb fibre from other providers after when it's swaps to native FTTP

Yes, done that. Currently have 900Mbps from BT Business (we are one) having moved from Cerberus 330/50 which itself was an upgrade from 330/30 that was an FTTPoD install.

Technically we currently have both Cerberus on Port 1 and BT Business on Port2.

In reply to a post by LordVader:

But will I be able to order 500mb/1gb fibre from other providers after when it's swaps to native FTTP

It swaps to native FTTP as soon as it goes live.

You could order 1Gb as a 2nd service from another provider immediately after your fibre goes live.

After your minimum 12 months with Cerberus you can migrate to any FTTP provider that is available to your address, at any speed that is available.

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

You could order 1Gb as a 2nd service from another provider immediately after your fibre goes live.

And three or four(*) of your neighbours, who are covered by the CBT that will be installed for you, will also be able to order native FTTP from any provider of their choice, as soon as your service goes live.

(*) I'm not sure if the "4 properties passed" includes you, or is in addition to you.