http://www.btplc.com/News...70-4D79-83F8-2CDA88B3E51B

This is great news, allowing customers to pay to have a fibre run back to the cabinet.  If the installation price is fair (as in, reasonable for the amount of labour and cost of materials) then I'd seriously consider paying to have fibre laid to my home.

The big question is: will PlusNet be part of the mentioned FTTP on Demand trial?

Good find. I'd be interested as well depending on the installation costs.

Go on PN you know you need to support this

Hi DougMa,


If you happened to be in the same area where BT were trialling it, we could possibly get you added.

Jojo

Depends on your interpretation of fair? It's only speculative but have a read of this article over on TBB.

Yeah, I read the same article.

I figure £500-£1000 would be fair; for me installation shouldn't require groundworks thanks to 300m of relatively new ducting from the cabinet direct to the property.  It should not take long to insert a tube and blow the fibre, but I have no idea about equipment costs that would need to be covered by the fee.  Closer to £500 would obviously be preferred; the higher the cost the less likely I'd be willing to believe it worth the premium over VDSL2.

A couple of years ago I got an estimate of £4500 installation for a leased-line.  Thankfully FTTC came along to offer an alternative way to get above 2Mbps, although my cabinet has yet to be activated: it was installed in July and still has no power!

Considering that the electric/Gas people will charge £300+ odd just to move their supply meter in your house a few meters, I think some re-calibration is necessary on how much it would cost to bring fibre from the cabinet to an individual's home.

I reported on another thread on these forums how replacing a single old/rotten BT telegraph pole was going to cost BT in excess of £1000
When discussing re-trenching and totally re-laying a totally defective few hundred yard section of BT cable in new ducts on a private road contractors quotes to BT of £30K were being banded around.

Obviously the cost would be much reduced if groups of homes could actually agree to mutually contribute and would actually stump up the cash in advance.  But then you'd get the home nearest to the cabinet bitching about how the cost is so high because he is paying in part to get it to the house at the far end of the street.  You need the Heddgefund/banker/lawyer multi-millionarie in the mansion at the end of the road to fork out 100% of the cost for their own benefit and the then rest of the impoverished residents can piggyback later on  (seen that scenario with a Gas main).

One-off work always cost significantly more; the planning and contracting must all be funded from that one job.

I guess it depends how much of this BT wants to sell.  If they charge thousands then this is nothing more than a meaningless press release, if they charge hundreds then it could sell in reasonable numbers.

If BT can standardize pricing then they could increase volumes and ultimately reduce costs.  Effectively BT would be the entity advancing the money to cover the high initial cost so they can make it back later (e.g., they make a loss on the first property, but ultimately cover their costs because three more properties sign-up and BT gets four installation fees to cover their costs).

My exchange is due to go live for FTTC in Dec if the trials are not starting until next year could you please add my name to the FTTP On demand list for when the trial starts.

Obviously if the trial has already started then as usual I'll have missed out :-( and this post can be ignored. I'll just continue to live in hope of a faster connection coming in December.

in hope,

podman

a quick question.

what is to stop BT changing all future FTTP provisions to FTTC and then make more money by charging to upgrade to FTTP.  Isn't this just a way to make the BT pot stretch further.

also why should it be possible that BT can decide to provide FTTP straight off to some EUs but then expect others to pay great costs to get the same result. I know there are slightly different technology in changing the FTTC to FTTP as it connects through the cabinet but as the end result for the EU will be comparable speeds the expectation to force some to pay extra to get what others get for free is not exactly fair.

What are other peoples thoughts.

podman

I have to ask what will the average user Use it for and yes the Muppets sketch springs to mind.  Unless online TV/Films takes off in a big way  who really needs those speeds?

Unless you have a house full of PC's all streaming different films, how are you going to afford the bandwidth that ISPs will hit you up for.  Average 120 minute film is about 1.2-1.4 gig in size, in HD add on 30-50%, thats a lot of bandwidth a month in a large house.

Well if I was running BT that is exactly what I would do!

There is nothing whatsoever stopping BT from changing the plans. It's their investment money, and they get to choose how they want to spend it.

In the end, it will come down to choosing the most efficient way to rollout the bandwidth - whatever technology that requires. That alongside one eye on the future.

Same answer.

In reality, I guess the "area-wide" installation of FTTP will happen for those places where it is more cost-effective to use FTTP than FTTC - or where FTTC isn't suitable. This might be places with more poles, or might be places with sufficient conduits. It cries out as the solution for those on direct exchange lines, and plausibly as an FTTB solution for flats.

However, I think the best way to read the on-demand-FTTP product is that it is really targetted, initially, at businesses and maybe a few early-adopters. It won't be quite right for mass install yet.

As the picture says - PLEASE can you add me to any list for trails fo FTTP in my area, that is assuming that the cost isn't so mental that I need to sell a kidney - mind you I would still have one left  

I would be very interested in doing this as I can see the cabinet at the end of my street.

I live in a fairly new housing development in Milton Keynes that is served by the FTTC only exchange in Newport Pagnell.

There should be no problem running fibre to the premises here as all the ductwork for services and cable should already be in place.

Would I be restricted to just BT? Or could I get any cable company to come in and lay fibre?

I think BT are still a year away from doing this, so it is maybe a bit premature for some of these questions.

The ducts probably (almost certainly) belong to BT, and the equipment you'd need to connect to at the other end of the duct belongs to Openreach, so you probably are restricted to just BT. Ofcom have made BT offer access to the ducts & poles, but there has been little take-up, and a lot of complaints at the price level. But any other company would still need to have some equipment to connect that fibre to - it would have to be their own cabinet.

Perhaps part of the reason for the BT inertia on FTTP are the bloated fees currently charged for existing fibre/coax dedicated business internet access. I often have BT sales people calling and offering an "excellent price" for a mere 5 year commitment.