back to article Openreach hacks full-fibre broadband prices for developers... Property developers, that is

BT's Openreach has said it is dropping the price of installing fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) broadband by around three-quarters as the race to install high-speed internet connections across the UK continues. Fibre, image via Shutterstock BT, beware: Cityfibre reveals plan to shovel £2.5bn under Britain's rural streets READ …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm building a new house in my garden, never mind it looks like a shed BT, just give me the discount.

    1. frank ly

      Put curtains on the windows, a tv antenna on the roof and a number on the door. That should convince them.

      1. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
        Pirate

        Forget BT...

        ...in some parts of the country that's £1,500/month in rental income, right there.

        GJC

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "tv antenna"

        You won't need that if you have fibre ;-)

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

      3. Wellyboot Silver badge

        @frank ly - curtains on the windows, a tv antenna on the roof and a number on the door. That should convince > the council to charge you for it as a second house!

        1. Spazturtle Silver badge

          The council consider a domicile as an area that has a bed, a bathroom and an 'area that can be used to prepare food'. My bedroom has an on-suite bathroom and a on-suite study with a desk. The council have decided that meets the definition of a domicile so it has it's own council tax. Fortunately for me this has reduced the council tax band of the main part of the house and a single person discount can be applied to both council tax bills, so in the end I am better off.

          1. Oh Homer
            Windows

            Re: "The council consider a domicile..."

            Damn, this does not bode well for my hole in the road covered by a sheet of tarpaulin, unless I somehow get rid of my flattened cardboard box bed, rusty metal bucket toilet, and abandoned shopping cart BBQ.

            I'll have nothing left but my iPhone XS Max. How the hell am I supposed to survive this winter?

  2. Kane

    "I'm building a new house in my garden, never mind it looks like a shed BT, just give me the discount."

    It'll never work, you need to build at least 30 of them to get the discount.

    Now, myself? I've got some major construction work to do around the back with my Lego kits.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      >It'll never work, you need to build at least 30 of them to get the discount.

      Did you actually read the article before commenting ?

      The discount of "more than 75 per cent" will apply to residential developments of less than 30 homes, meaning this is squarely aimed at commercial building firms.

      I suggest reading those cards in the back of aircraft seats before take-off.

      1. Kane

        "Did you actually read the article before commenting ?"

        You're absolutely right anonymous coward, I didn't read the article correctly. My apologies.

        Next time I'll be more vigilant in my commenting process, and triple check everything I've written.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Next time I'll be more vigilant in my commenting process, and triple check everything I've written.

          I've made promises like that before. But I didn't keep them either.

  3. SImon Hobson Silver badge

    Their policy was definitely (well still might be, don't know what the prices are) self defeating in the medium term.

    Mother looked at a new build on a development of 6 houses. I queried why no underground ducting for phone service - "too expensive" came the reply. So instead the 6 houses get overhead washing lines, and cables clipped down the front to the single phone socket the developer could be ar*ed to install.

    Now, had BTOR been more sensible, they'd have got some ducting installed by the developer and it would be much easier to put in something less 19th century like fibre - thus saving on costs later, and saving on maintenance as ducted underground cabling is far less failure prone that overhead cables flapping in the wind.

    1. Andre Carneiro

      No need for ducting

      It’s fairly trivial to replace the copper cable washing lines for fibre washing lines.

      Ducting would be a lot more reliable and aesthetic but shouldn’t disadvantage you too much...

      1. JetSetJim

        Re: No need for ducting

        IIRC, BTOR were installing fibre-cored copper on new builds - although I can't find the link ot the product now.

        All developments *should* install decent amounts of ducting as art of the groundworks as that is obviously the cheapest time to do it. Unfortunately there is no value add to the price of the house in doing so, so developers don't bother.

        Until the govmt regulate new-builds to support fibre easier, this will continue to be the case.

      2. Sgt_Oddball

        Re: No need for ducting

        So a call to central services? Or Harry Tuttle?

  4. Andre Carneiro

    It’s about time!

    Seems like OR are finally starting to get serious about fibre deployments.

    Now to replace the old copper carcasses...

    1. steelpillow Silver badge
      Facepalm

      Re: It’s about time!

      "Seems like OR are finally starting to get serious about fibre deployments."

      Nope. They are serious about shafting CityFibre though.

  5. biolo

    The discount applies to UP TO 30 new build houses. More than 30 houses was already free, although I think the developers in both instances have to install the ducts, supplied by Openreach, from the site boundary to the properties, but they need to do that for copper too. I've got a site for 2 new houses, that I was quoted ~£20K for about 6 months back, which I dismissed as too expensive as I don't believe in the area the plots are that the cost would be recovered by an increase in the sale price. If that's now ~£5K then it becomes something I can consider. Not sure it'll actually increase sale price over and above the cost, but it'll certainly give them a differentiating factor that we can promote in the sales info and perhaps attract some buyers who might not have considered the properties before, as neighbouring properties only get ~20Mbps.

    1. JetSetJim

      It's aimed at commercial developers, so suspect single sites will either not benefit as much, if at all.

      Rather oddly, I built my house and attempted to get BTOR to install. Nearest pole in the neighbours front garden, although terminator on the next pole down the track. Had the order all prepped 3 months in advance (it was for copper), appointment made, and naturally it was a no-show. Rang to complain and they cancelled the order and said "we're only installing fibre to that postcode", even though the fibre area was on a different exchange, and the one I was to be connected to wasn't even "superfast".

      At times, BTOR can't even wipe its own arse

  6. zxcvbnm

    My brother gets 12mbps adsl for £15, I get 30mpbs for £20 basic fibre, including line rental. If no copper wire then FTTP starts at £40 a month. No wonder Bt wants fibre only houses. Personally I'm prepared to wait a few years.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I went through a comms broker and got FTTP installed for about £4k (was more like 14k, but he first 10k of works were waived)..Where I am the downloads over adsl were “ok” at about 13mpbs but upload was more like 700kb which meant voip or VC wasn’t viable. 100mpbs symmetric now costs me about 400p/m but that’s more than compensated by productivity gains, almost zero commuting costs, Netflix and pr0n.

    Openreach themselves were excellent, local council not so much. Made a 4 week lead time into a 9 month one, but as openreach get so maligned I thought I’d present a positive story. It needed about 3 miles of fibre being run in.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      > 100mpbs symmetric now costs me about 400p/m

      That's not FTTP, it's a leased line. BT/OpenReach are happy to install those on demand, as the high rental soon gets the installation cost back.

      Of course, a 100M symmetric leased line is a nice service, if you can afford to pay nearly £5K every year for as long as you need it.

      The FTTP network and leased line networks are completely separate. If you cease your leased line and try to buy FTTP, you won't be able to.

  8. Lorribot

    Why isn't every council making FTTP a condition of every housing development and any existing house that is affected by the development.

    What exactly do these councillors actually do that benefits us?

    Fritter away the money and plead poverty and never take the opportunity to actually make our lives better.

    1. YARR

      Funnily enough, not everyone who builds or moves into a new home values FTTP enough to stump up the installation fee. With house prices already out of reach for so many, every extra cost matters. FTTP isn't a necessity to access essential online services.

    2. Dwarf

      More to the point, why are BT as the national telco not trying to build their business to ensure that its still relevant in 5 years time.

      Trying to push the issue to everyone else is just me a short term way to reduce their costs, the problem is that over time, their user base and therefore profits will wither away.

      This isn't a government issue or a developer issue, its a single company who should know what it takes to stay competitive and relevant. How many of you don't have a phone line at home or don't use it as your mobile has unlimited free minutes ?

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