UK digital network infrastructure provider Openreach is introducing a number of wholesale price reductions to encourage Communications Providers (CPs) to upgrade their customers – and attract new ones – onto faster, more reliable and future proof Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) connections.

The new prices, some of which come into effect from September 1st, offer significant discounts across ultrafast and superfast services, making future-proof broadband more affordable.

The company believes the move will make it easier for CPs to choose futureproof ‘full fibre’ technology wherever it is available to its end customers.

The key price reductions include:

• A 36 per cent reduction to the headline Ultrafast 330Mbps product at £24.28
• A 20 per cent reduction to the entry level Ultrafast 110Mbps product at £17.28
• A 10 per cent reduction to the entry level Superfast 40Mbps product at £14.28

Openreach also plans to introduce new 500Mbps and 1Gbps variants of its FTTP service later in the financial year 2019/20, with pricing aimed at attracting consumers and home workers.

The new prices are designed to make Openreach’s full fibre platform more accessible, and they’re available to all CPs under the same terms and conditions, without any obligation to commit to specific volumes.

The changes will provide CPs with long term pricing certainty on FTTP and pave the way for potential future limited offers in exchange for CP commitments.

“We’re making great progress on our full fibre build programme and our discussions with customers about upgrading the country have been encouraging so far,” commented Katie Milligan, Managing Director for Customer, Commercial and Propositions at Openreach. “Naturally pricing is fundamental to that shift and we want to give our wholesale customers the confidence to invest at scale in their own full fibre products and services using our network. To do that, we’re offering them a greater incentive to switch their customers to a full fibre world, with more competitive pricing and a wider choice of products.”

“These price changes are a win/win for Communications Providers, their customers and Openreach. We believe they will encourage the UK’s homes and businesses to experience the benefits of faster and more reliable broadband. We hope they’ll incentivise our wholesale customers to consider the longer-term benefits of upgrading more of their customers to ultrafast Fibre to the Premises technology, particularly their customers who are currently using superfast Fibre to the Cabinet services.”

“At Openreach, we know that upgrading people onto future proofed full fibre broadband will keep the UK at the forefront of the global digital economy – boosting productivity, growth and prosperity. We want to start reaping those benefits now, so we’re encouraging providers, homes and businesses to make the switch to FTTP wherever it’s available and sooner rather than later.”

Openreach recently increased its target for building a new full fibre network to four million premises by March 2021, and it wants to make the technology available to 15 million homes and businesses by the mid-2020s, if the right conditions are right to invest.

The business doubled its FTTP footprint in 2018 and it continues to ramp up the build programme across the UK – making the technology available to more than 20,000 homes and businesses every week.

More than 1.5 million UK homes and businesses now have access to faster, more reliable and future-proof full fibre broadband services over the Openreach network.

Categories: Articles, Broadband, FTTH