330Mbps Fibre to the Premises BT Rolls out New SuperFast BB speeds!
Yesterday BT Openreach announced that the premium Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) service, promising speeds of up to 330Mbps, had been made commercially available to all other ISPs.
Similar to how existing ISPs can use BT Openreach’s ADSL and Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) lines to sell broadband services, BT Openreach’s FTTP footprint is now available to be resold to other non-BT Retail subscribers.
But who’s biting?
So far we’ve just heard of plans from Plusnet and Zen Internet. We’ve contacted the main UK ISPs to find out if and when they’ll be signing up for FTTP.
Bear in mind that right now the 330Mbps lines are available in just a handful of places. So until there’s greater availability, its possible that not everyone will be jumping on the 330Mbps bandwagon.
We will update this piece as and when we hear more from providers.
BT Retail
Perhaps surprisingly, BT Retail hasn’t yet announced its plans for 330Mbps. After the BT Openreach announcement we were half-expecting the unveiling of BT Infinity 300.
However the official line at the minute is that BT Retail “[doesn’t] offer ultra-fast currently and [is] not in a position to say publicly whether [we] will or won’t.”
We’ll keep you posted on this...
5*Y
We’ve heard nothing back yet from *** about its plans to sell 330Mbps FTTP broadband. *** has quietly been making use of BT’s FTTC lines however, so perhaps it’ll do the same with FTTP.
Virgin Media
Virgin Media has announced that it won’t be buying fibre optic broadband lines from BT Openreach as the type of cable used by BT’s network - VDSL2 - is different to the type that Virgin Media uses - DOCSIS 3.
A Virgin Media spokesperson told us that as “we can't deliver our full suite of services over BT Infinity” (i.e. TV, on-demand video, TiVo service etc) Virgin Media won’t be using BT’s network.
TalkTalk
TalkTalk has yet to get back to us about its plans (if any) for using BT Openreach’s FTTP lines.
Orange
As with ***, we’re still waiting to hear back about Orange’s plans to use BT’s FTTP lines.
O2
Again, we’re still waiting to hear back. Given that Be Broadband, owned by O2, has announced that it won’t be selling fibre optic broadband services this year, this could be an indicator that O2 broadband won’t either.
Plusnet trialling 330Mbps fibre optic broadband
On the quiet, Plusnet let some details slip on its forum about 330Mbps trials last week. Plusnet has yet to announce plans to sell 330Mbps FTTP broadband services - but given that the trials were only mentioned recently, we’re guessing it’ll be a while before anything’s formally announced.
Zen Internet to launch 330Mbps FTTP broadband
Zen Internet has announced that it will be launching 330Mbps FTTP services soon, next to its existing 100Mbps services.
Though no price details for the 330Mbps service has been announced just yet, we expect that costs will be in the same region as its 100Mbps products.
Zen Internet Fibre Enterprise gives you 100Mbps down, 15Mbps up and a 500GB monthly usage cap for £70 a month.
Zen Internet Fiber Enterprise Plus gives you 100Mbps downstream but offers a faster 30Mbps upstream speed. Usage is capped at 500GB a month and the cost rises to £95 a month.
These packages are more geared towards businesses and early adopters who perhaps don’t mind the extra expense.
:mrgmx:
