USO and existing contracts

I was chatting with a friend about the USO coming into effect in March, and it occurred to us that it is very likely that most people will be in a contract with an ISP that is not BT - so requesting a connection that meets USO could require them breaking their contract. Now, if it takes months to install FTTP then that may not be a problem as the contract may end in the meanwhile, but if it is just a matter of delivering a 4G router presumably that could happen very quickly .
Is being in a contract going to be an effective block on USO requests?

If the USO is delivered by adding 4G then no contract broken, just person ends up paying for two connections and people may try the USO 4G and go back to ADSL e.g. if ADSL latency is better for the gamer in the house, but speeds of 4G mean flipping to that is best for downloading updates.

Given USO areas are going to be mainly just ADSL/ADSL2+ ones, then I'd have thought from the more limited broadband options they are people more likely to be out of contract or with BT anyway

There are a lot of people (including myself) on ADSL with Plusnet, and they have 18 month contracts these days - and the out of contract price is double the in-contract price, so I suspect most people are in contract.
I'm out of contract, and about to cancel ADSL, but I know others in the local area that are also sub-USO and with Plusnet.

I would say you are correct, people may not be able to switch supplier (economically) until their contract is up. But, the USO has been known about for a while now so people could have chosen not to renew contracts and take the hit that way. It isn't any different in an area that any new service is made available at (Virgin, Cityfibre, Gigaclear, B4RN, etc) - if a person wants to move to the new service then they would need to deal with the existing contract that they chose to sign up to.

I take your point about it being like any other new network becoming available - but it is also a bit different in that it won't appear until some time after being requested. Once you have requested it I don't believe you will have much control of the timing of when it becomes available (if at all).

It does depend on how it is delivered. If it is straight 4G then probably able to get it quickly (won't know for sure until after the USO goes live). If however BT decided to deliver via another technology (FTTC/FTTP/etc) then there would be lead times. I stayed out of contract for about 2 years some time ago thinking that FTTPoD would become viable but it never did (at least not where I was). In the end contracts are a trade off - usually cheaper price but locked in to the service, generally once the initial term is up no-one has to recontract on a long term basis but most choose to for the discounts - that comes at a price.

I would suspect most people who are going to register for the B-USO already know what the 4G service is like in their area and I would imagine that unless infrastructure is already in the area for something like FTTP the likely solution is 4G (first choice EE even if another mobile provider has better speed).

The main question I have is what happens to someone who takes out a ADSL/FTTC service after the B-USO begins and its below 10Mbps, should all providers be prevented from selling services below 10Mbps from the date B-USO starts?

Ironically the fairness moves from Ofcom in the last year or two have been a key part lots more people remaining locked into contracts e.g. renewing at the end of the original term.

It is not always a direct policy that creates the effect, but providers carefully use fairness to market how they are being nice to you as a customer by offering fixed price deals if you stay with them on a 18 or 24 month contract.

In light of lots of new dynamics arising from FTTP roll-outs this has the potential to slow down take-up, though in an environment where people are short of cash it makes sense.

I do think that once the USO is live, then anyone who orders a service that doesn't meet USO should at least be advised of the USO - and that ordering the sub-USO connection may lock them into an inferior service.
Also from talking to neighbours, I don't think many people realise that the USO means BT, and not any other ISP that you may be with.