Is There Demand For Ultra Fast?

For some time I have doubted if there is demand for Ultra Fast.

Think Broadband quotes 'BT Group' results today -

"The economic case for FTTP remains challenging given superfast broadband coverage now exceeds 90% and the majority of end-users are currently only willing to pay a low premium for additional speeds."

So I had a look at some TB Data. RH162HN Lindfield exchange in particular.

This area is interesting as it had 100% sign up for the 'Race to Infinity.' Every single phone line in the exchange registered and this resulted in accelerated superfast enablement.

Furthermore Openreach based on this proven demand, enabled 3 cabinet areas for FTTP only rather than FTTC service.

This FTTP deployment included urban residential, a village high street and fairly long reach rural.

This is one of Openreach's mature FTTP deployments.

Think Broadband speed test maps show these areas not only missing any ultra fast result, they are missing any up to 80 meg results.

Is there really any demand for FTTP? Would these areas be better off if BT used the money to increase payments to staff, pensioners and shareholders who would in turn spend the money in the local economy rather than spending on stuff nobody wants to buy?

In reply to a post by partial:

Would these areas be better off if BT used the money to increase payments to staff, pensioners and shareholders who would in turn spend the money in the local economy rather than spending on stuff nobody wants to buy?

A century or so ago I imagine people were asking the same about electricity to the home...

Demand does vary a lot from area to area, and at the time of the Race to Infinity I did warn about the tendency that was shown by previous on-demand campaigns for registrations to not always be real - hence why some demand schemes take a 'payment'

https://labs.thinkbroadband.com/local/west-sussex,E1...

If you look at the speed test side you can see average speeds for FTTH in an area, and the spread of speeds e.g. in West Sussex the median speed for looks like lots are on Infinity 1

As I've said on social media I suspect the appeal for Vodafone will be Gigabit at sub £30 price point

We need more FTTP but as ever no one wants to pay for it and public is looking at other bills going up while still enjoying what are largely flat wages

So if BT is making the wrong commercial choices others will benefit and can fill the void, if the current commercial market is left alone.

The UK has the odd thing of wanting BT to have like the GPO and if thats what the majority of the population want then maybe we need a Government that will renationalise it and other utilities

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

The UK has the odd thing of wanting BT to have like the GPO

I'm old enough to have long memories of the GPO... for all its faults, I'd rather stick with BT.

I'd rather stick with BT.

As I suspect would anyone who had to deal with the GPO through the 70s and early 80s. An appalling company where one had to wait months for simple new line installs - and that in central London rather than remote rural.

In reply to a post by MCM:

As I suspect would anyone who had to deal with the GPO through the 70s and early 80s. An appalling company where one had to wait months for simple new line installs - and that in central London rather than remote rural.

I was middling rural at the time... Newbury in Berkshire. I forget the exact date but it wasn't until around mid-70's that we got phones with rotary dials on them rather than picking up the receiver and waiting for the operator.

And they were Trimphones .

And also vastly over staffed - though 1970's did see big expansion of copper network, hence the pension burden

In reply to a post by partial:

Is there really any demand for FTTP? Would these areas be better off if BT used the money to increase payments to staff, pensioners and shareholders who would in turn spend the money in the local economy rather than spending on stuff nobody wants to buy?

Well it was the case of staying with a bad copper line that on a good day gave us about 4.5Mbps and on a bad day nothing and a dead line, or FTTP, then we would choose FTTP.
Now if FTTC was available before FTTP then we would of chosen FTTC, but that wasn't the case so we went with FTTP.

Paul

And if you had say 22 to 28 Mbps via VDSL2 how readily would you have upgraded is really the question.

We all exist in our own little bubbles, but the only way I see millions upgrading from VDSL2 to FTTP is if the price is pretty much the same or actually lower. My assumption is that many people are like me seeing bills going up a lot faster than static wages so actually have a lot less now to spend than a few years ago.

Don't get me wrong would love VDSL2 to disappear and UK have 20 million lines of FTTP but the realist part of the brain does see the logistical and financial issues with that.