Bt Fibre to the Home - It's GO!

On 15 July, BT announced plans to roll out fibre-based, super-fast broadband to as many as 10 million homes in the UK by December 2012. The plan is to invest �1.5bn over the next 4 years to deliver a range of services with top speeds of up to 100 Mbps with the prospect of speeds of more than 1,000 Mbps in the future.

Broadband has boosted the UK economy in recent years, becoming an essential part of our customers' lives. We have world leading broadband availability and take-up. Consumers have massive choice from over 200 ISPs, with some of the lowest prices in the world. Our new programme of investment will bring the UK the next generation of broadband services with world-leading speeds and capacity.

Linky.

(Edit - Full press release .)

No surprise the Olympics are in the frame, and this announcement comes soon after the Sky announcement of East London trials of fibre.

Very important - BT want Virgin Cable to have to offer wholesale as well! Also important is the last paragraph of the press release - re increases in backhaul capacity and lower prices for it.

(I wonder who posted the OP and where they were? )

Edited by RobertoS (Tue 15-Jul-08 08:47:44)

There is every opportunity to compete with BT. Anyone can install a fibre network - if they want to make the investment.

If BT are willing to make the investment, then they should be allowed to make an adequate return on that investment and not be forced to provide service to others at an uneconomic price.

I wasn't criticising BT, I was just asking the question. However I since found the full press release and have edited my post appropriately.

To a certain degree I agree with you, the only problem is, if Bt raise prices are they going to raise prices across the board to get there money back, even people who will not be able to get the new super duper high speed service?

The chance of our little city having fibre to the home or cabinet is zero, but I wonder if we will stil be expected to pay for other people.

I don't think BT will be raising ordinary broadband prices to pay for fibre, but I did read into it that they will be expecting those who have high-speed broadband to pay proportionately higher prices for it.

It's a positive step but still a little has a few issues:

"Are �next generation broadband� and �super-fast broadband� the same thing?
No. �Next generation broadband� refers to the family of new services that BT will offer. These include fibre-based �super-fast� services � such as FTTP and FTTC � as well as advanced copper-based fast services such as ADSL2+."

So they still think that ADSL2+ is next generation and apparently view it as an adequate solution for a lot of people.

"Are you taking action to reduce the congestion caused by services such as the BBC�s iPlayer?
Yes. BT has made it much cheaper for companies to buy extra capacity on the �backhaul� pipes that link exchanges to the core network. This move should ensure Internet congestion is minimised. BT will also invest significant funds in improving core network capacity. Both measures should ensure customers on BT�s network will enjoy a higher quality of service than those on cable networks where contention and internet congestion has been more of an issue. "

That's very good to hear.

And on a lighter note:

"Will the UK be in a stronger position after this deployment?
Yes. This plan will deliver some of the fastest speeds in the world to a far larger percentage of the population than in some other countries where fibre services are largely confined to major cities. "

..well they were hardly likely to say "No. We think it'll stuff the economy good and proper, cause massive social unrest and destroy the ecosystem. We just wanted to fritter a large sum of money away and thought it'd be funny to screw the country over."

Edited by Andrue (Tue 15-Jul-08 08:59:31)

What will happen to those parts of the UK who won�t have access to fibre?
Those areas will have access to copper-based ADSL2+, a service offering speeds of up to 24Mb. This will be sufficient for services such as Hi-Definition TV. BT will roll out fibre beyond this plan if there is sufficient demand and it can make an adequate return on its investment.

So, basically, those areas of the country where it hasn't been cost effective to get speeds above 4000kbps or so will be on 4000kpbs or so for well beyond 2012 (probably for ever!)

John.

It's a very positive step in my view!

One thing I did pick up on after reading your post was the past tense used by BT - "BT *has* made it much cheaper for companies to buy extra capacity...". There's a good chance they could be referring to the MSIL based backhaul for 21CN services. I'm not aware of any decreases in pricing of their WES/WEES circuits, or any other backhaul for that matter.

Also, the cynic in me notes that BT's AGM is tomorrow, and all of this good news will certainly detract from the negativity of the Phorm protests being planned...

Thanks,

Sam

It is very positive, not to mention surprising, but I'd like to wait for any mention of upstream speeds (a long wait I know) before getting too excited. The announcement of only 2 megabits on the top product in Ebbsfleet was very disappointing to me, and I'll be even more disappointed if this kind of upload suddenly becomes the standard for this kind of next-generation service.