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BT to offer 300Mbits/sec fibre "on demand"

By Barry Collins

Posted on 3 Feb 2012 at 09:39

BT will offer customers already in fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) areas the chance to upgrade to 300Mbits/sec fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) from next year.

Dubbed "FTTP on demand", the service will see BT lay a cable from the local cabinet to the user's premises upon request. Previously, FTTP was only set to be available in selected areas.

The initiative could massively boost the number of end-to-end fibre connections. Previously, BT estimated that only 25% of fibre connections would be FTTP, but a spokesman for the company told PC Pro that "the ratio might change somewhat" on the back of this announcement.

FTTP on demand won't be available until spring 2013, however, with BT due to conduct further trials of the service this summer. The BT spokesman said the company had been working on FTTP on demand for the past 18 months, but a recent trial in St Agnes, Cornwall, had given BT the confidence to go public with its plans.

BT is set to boost the maximum download speed of FTTC lines from 40Mbits/sec to 80Mbits/sec this spring, and claims the 300Mbits/sec FTTP lines will be primarily pitched at small and medium businesses, rather than consumers.

BT has yet to announce any prices/installation fees for the FTTP service. FTTP on demand will also be offered to ISPs who rent fibre lines on a wholesale basis from BT.

BT claims to have more than seven million premises covered by its fibre footprint, although doubts have been raised over demand for the high-speed services. Late last year, Ofcom chief Ed Richards said take-up of superfast broadband was "still low" and quipped that only families with teenage children were interested in the technology.

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User comments

'although doubts have been raised over demand for the high-speed services'

There are always these doubts. Back in 1981 Gates is widely believed (although he now denies this) to have stated that "640K ought to be enough for anybody" in relation to the first 8/16bit computer.

Until we realise true high speed internet in the UK demand wont rise. As it's availability becomes more widespread, more applications that use it will evolve. For example HD content over the net to multiple sources in a single household. More cloud computing, including access to previously expensive software for single (hopefully low) payments will become possible. Business could finally embrace working from the home, or distant offices in shared premises in most small towns to reduce commuting needs.

Ultimately there are a lot of reasons to get high speed internet, but most wont be realised or even made available until the infrastructure is in place. Demand creates demand and can only be fulfilled by investment in this scenario.

By skarlock on 3 Feb 2012

Until you get the speed you don't realise what you can do

18 months ago we moved from an area of Essex where we could only get 1.1 Mbps to an address in Surrey where we typically got 5.5. Nevertheless, on an exchange that was an early upgrade to BT Infinity we went with FTTC with PlusNet. Although we get nothing like the 'up to 40 Mbps' - more like 23 - it has revolutionised what I can do for work, in legally sharing large files for work via Dropbox. I'll be glad for the speed doubling when it comes, and I'll watch with interest what the 300 Mbps FTTP service costs, because I expect these improvements to widen my horizons considerably.

By davefaulkner on 3 Feb 2012

Its going to cost...

I've seen figures of £1500+ for installation of the line + hundreds pcm for rental for the 300Mbs lines.

By wittgenfrog on 3 Feb 2012

Double the speed

I bet that by the time BT offer the FTTP installation on demand, they will have doubled the speeds to 600Mbits/sec! =D

By formula_86 on 3 Feb 2012

Virgin Media

50mbps, 3 people streaming, 2 HD films from Netflix plus 1HD tv show from bbc iplayer, at the same time, no lag, no interruptions. The best. Plus BT will have stupid fair usage policies, unlike virgin media which has no such stupid things on the 50 meg or higher, and they are doubling speed...

By mobilegnet on 3 Feb 2012

As daft as it sounds if they offered a 10mb, symmetrical service for around £50 a month this would be a superb offering.

It would be a true ability to work remotely, giving families VOIP from home, remote data uploading - the works. It would really take off. However, BT will charge through the roof and restrict as much as they can.

By bubbles16 on 5 Feb 2012

I'll bet the demand is there

but not at the prices charged in the current economic circumstances.

I'd love to have a superfast broadband package but at the moment my financial circumstances mean I'm having to cut back on my spending. That means the cheapest boradband package I could find, which obviously isn't going to be the fastest. I'll wager a lot of people are in the same boat.

To be honest, I don't feel that I'm missing out speed-wise at the moment. As I've had to adjust my online behaviour to the usage caps (I'm on the lowest plusnet package so it's a 10GB cap but unlimited usage between midnight and 8 a.m.) I'm not using things like YouTube or iPlayer that I used to use without thinking about it before I switched down.

By cerebros on 6 Feb 2012

Still waiting

I'd be happy to just be able to get cable of any sort!

By gazbea on 9 Feb 2012

Demand for hi speed fibre

I have recently upgrade to a BT Infinity package which is similar in cost to my previous package from BT. I used to get 4mps which in the last 6-9 months dropped to sometimes less than 2 mbps. The day I got my Infinity package I was getting up to 24mbps. That was on Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC).
I do believe there would be significant demand especially from people who work from home or could work from home where anything which allows this on a fast, reliable and speedy connect basis would be welcomed. I with a small home office would buy it for one is the price wasn't hugely different and BT promised not to throttle my speed!

By Sirarchie6 on 10 Feb 2012