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BT Fibre Broadband on Demand prices revealed: From £700 for FTTP

BT has revealed prices for its FTTP on Demand plans which show that prices for full fibre broadband start at £700 per installation. 

The one-off cost to upgrade an FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) line to the full FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) service will include a £500 fixed fee with an extra cost based on distance – to reflect the cost of building the last mile connection to your home or business. 

This distance-based cost will vary but will start at £200. Openreach estimates that in most cases (55 per cent), people will incur a distance cost between £200 and £1,000. 

BT Fibre Broadband on Demand prices revealed: From £700 for FTTP
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So in most cases if you’re lucky enough to be connected to BT’s FTTC network you can expect to pay between £700 and £1,500 if you want the real fibre deal. 

For the other 45 per cent, things start to get really expensive. Openreach says that virtually all other places will need to pay anything between £1,400 and £3,500 for the fibre, on top of the £500 flat fee. This means for places located a good distance away from street cabinets, things will cost anything between £1,900 up to £4,000. 

Note that these prices, all exclude VAT and reflect the cost that Openreach (not BT Retail) will set FTTP On Demand at. So, it’ll be up to ISPs to decide how these charges will be passed on to you, the customer. 

What’s more is that installation won’t be exactly speedy either. You’re looking at a 60 day wait for things to be up and running. Then there’s the £38/month cost on top of that for the actual broadband service.

Fibre to the Premises is more desirable than FTTC as it provides faster download speeds and is more future-proofed; tests have shown that BT’s FTTP lines can handle speeds of up to 10Gbps. Top speeds currently available on BT’s FTTP lines can reach 330Mbps. 

While this is head and shoulders above what most home users need at the moment, businesses will no doubt find some use for a 330Mbps broadband line. And perhaps just as well – at those prices, most UK homeowners won’t be able to entertain the idea of FTTP On Demand for a while yet. 

From April 29 onwards, FTTP On Demand will launch in the wholesale space, meaning ISPs like Plusnet and Zen Internet, who’ve been trialling 330Mbps fibre services, could well launch their own FTTC-FTTP upgrade packages. 

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