June confirmed for launch of 220 Mbps GEA-FTTP product

[Scubbie]

thinkbroadband :: June confirmed for launch of 220 Mbps GEA-FTTP product

Full fibre optic broadband while still fairly rare in the UK was available to around 95,000 premises via Openreach at the end of 2012, and has been available for the same price as the FTTC services when buying the 40 Mbps and 80 Mbps variants, but with faster 110 Mbps and 330 Mbps also available those wanting to push their download speeds in the lucky locations around the UK had the option.

The big jump between the 110 Mbps and 330 Mbps has now been bridged with the final launch date and pricing announced for a 220 Mbps download, and 20 Mbps upload service on 1st June 2013. The service carries a 20 Mbps prioritised rate on the downstream, with the 220 Mbps described as a peak rate.

If you take the full fibre optic service as well as a copper line rental product, the cost from Openreach is £92+VAT to install the service and£15.61+VAT per month. For those who don't want to also have a copper line running the install fee is still £92+VAT, but the monthly rental rises to £24 per month.

Obviously there will be extra costs on top of this before the product appears on the retail scene, the best guide is the 160 Mbps service from BT Retail that currently uses a throttled 330 Mbps service, but is likely to switch to the cheaper 220 Mbps option, which currently retails for £35 (inc VAT) per month, plus the cost of telephone line rental at ~£10 to £15 per month.

To avoid any confusion, the Fibre on Demand product remains only available at the 330 Mbps speed and carries a much higher installation fee.

Some may have read about the headline "BT quietly drops 25% fibre-to-the-premises target" over on PC Pro, we are in the process of trying to get better information from Openreach on the reality of the roll-out, and clarification of whether this means any significant change for those who have had availability checker messages saying that FTTP is coming to their property.

[speedyrite]

OMG - WMDRO gets something first (for a change)! Pity I can't afford it...