BT cuts price of 330 Mbps wholesale FTTP by 37%

BT Openreach (NYSE: BT), the division that provides wholesale access to BT and other competitive carriers to its last mile fiber and copper networks, on Thursday unveiled plans to reduce wholesale prices for its 330 Mbps Fiber to the Premises (FTTP) service by 37 percent.

BT Openreach FTTC

An Openreach technician works on a cabinet. BT's FoD service will enable customers to have fiber run from a cabinet to their premises on demand. (Image source: BT)

Beginning in June, Openreach said the price will be reduced from £60 ($97.00) a month to, £38 ($60.87) a month.

The new price will also apply to its new "FTTP-on-Demand (FoD) service, which will debut in "spring 2013." With EoD, BT said the service allows additional fiber to be run on demand to a home or business in a Fiber to the Cabinet (FTTC)-enabled cabinet by taking advantage of fiber "it has already deployed between the exchange and the street cabinet."

Competitive provider customers that opt for the FoD service will be charged a distance based construction fee because of the extra work BT has to do to provide a direct fiber connection. They can then decide to pass this initial charge onto their eligible customers that want a FTTP service.

BT said it is currently finalizing the charges and will release them once it gets closer to launching the service and has completed service trials. Pricing will be based on each premises' distance from the local fiber network. This FoD service will be rolled out in phases.

Most homes and business locations are on average located about 500 meters from BT's last mile fiber network, meaning that the cost would be about £1,000 ($1,601). Those premises that reside closer to the fiber network would pay a lower fee. As a premium service, any customer that requests the FoD service will be required to pay an initial £500 ($801) installation fee.

By all accounts, BT appears to be on track with its ambitious Fiber to the X (FTTX) roll out plan to reach to two-thirds of UK premises during spring 2014. As of the end of Q3 2012, the service provider passed over 12 million premises with fiber with over 190,000 connections in the quarter.

During the quarter, Openreach made two key moves to expand its FTTX network. The telco announced that it would extend its FTTC service to an additional 163 telephone exchange areas in 2013 and then hire an additional 250 engineers, particularly "Armed Forces leavers," or those about the leave the military, for its fiber broadband workforce.

For more:
- see the release

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