Fibre to the home Trials - who owns what?

[#1]

Hello,
What's the difference between Plusnet fibre trial and BT's fibre trial? I know BT will have Infinity starting to roll out next year at 40MB and are also conducting trials around the Milton Keynes area.
So, Plusnet are also trialing Fibre to the Home, but is this your own equipment, or does BT own the hardware and Plusnet own the 'service'?
If so, how are Plusnet able to offer up to 100MB fibre and BT only offering 40MB?
Sorry if this is obvious to some, but I'm a little confused as to the setup.
When the Plusnet trial comes to an end, what then?
Does Plusnet offer voice also on the fibre trial?
Thanks
Ollie

[#2]

one is FTTC (Firbe to cabinet), the other is FTTP - to premises
FTTC uses the original copper wire from the box up the road
BT Own both, but PN buy the service from BT Wholesale,  Dont think you can get PN broadband if you get BT infinity

[#3]

BT Openreach own the wires in the ground between you and the exchange.
BT Wholesale sell the phone & broadband product that can be placed on that line to relevent companies
BT Retail & Plusnet are two of these companies, and purchase the packages off BT Wholesale and offer to sell them to you at whatever price and in whatever format they want.
simples  
Your phone package will remain as a pure copper product on fttc (not sure on fttp), and will remain the same, regardless of which company you have voice with (i think)

[#4]

As TonyC points out, we purchase FTTC in the same way that BT Retail do when they package it as Infinity.
Openreach provision their NGE (Next Generation Ethernet) services to the local CAB, or newly install co-CAB within the vicinity of the existing CAB.
For FTTC they then place a link between your line from the exchange to the FTTC equipment, and then another link between the FTTC equipment and your property. This means instead of going direct through the CAB, it takes a detour to the equipment (possibly via another CAB).
This type of setup is actually not so different from traditional ADSL, with the obvious exception it takes place in the exchange.
LLU providers can also share this FTTC equipment too, though they can if they so wish use sub-loop unbundling. This is where they site their own CAB with the our equipment and then link to your main CAB in a similar fashion to that described above (though this will also be a completely different CAB).
One such example is the Yorkshire Digital Region, of which I almost have a CAB sitting at the end of my road.

[#5]

An attempt to answer all your questions as it appears some have been missed...

Quote from: OllieGBR

What's the difference between Plusnet fibre trial and BT's fibre trial? I know BT will have Infinity starting to roll out next year at 40MB and are also conducting trials around the Milton Keynes area.

Plusnet have two different trials running, the FTTC trial and the FTTP trial. The latter from only two exchanges in the UK. Highams Park in London and Bradwell Abbey in Milton Keynes.
As far as I know, BT are only trialling, on a wide scale, an FTTC service currently.

Quote from: OllieGBR

So, Plusnet are also trialing Fibre to the Home, but is this your own equipment, or does BT own the hardware and Plusnet own the 'service'?

It's a moot point really as BT own Plusnet. However, other responses have covered this question very well.

Quote from: OllieGBR

If so, how are Plusnet able to offer up to 100MB fibre and BT only offering 40MB?

Plusnet's 100Mb trial is FTTP whereas BT's 40Mb trial is FTTC. The fibre to the premises infrastructure is simply able to support higher data throughput than the fibre and 'last mile' of copper utilised in a fibre to the cabinet infrastructure.

Quote from: OllieGBR

When the Plusnet trial comes to an end, what then?

As far as I'm aware, there's been no dates set as of yet however, the FTTC trials have been running for considerably longer than the FTTP trials as of today.

Quote from: OllieGBR

Does Plusnet offer voice also on the fibre trial?

Not as of yet. I'd expect this to be offered once FTTC and FTTP become mainstream.
Paul