BT announces huge FTTP rollout to 2 million premises

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news BT today announced an investment in the UK’s broadband infrastructure that will see a major rollout of fibre to the premises (FTTP) alongside other initiatives the firm said will help the country remain “the leading digital nation in the G20”.

In a statement, BT said its Openreach and EE businesses will together spend around £6 billion in capital expenditure over the next three years as the first phase of a plan to take superfast broadband and 4G coverage beyond 95% of the country by 2020.

The plan will see ultrafast broadband deployed to a minimum of 10 million homes and businesses over that period, with the possibility of reaching 12 million. The firm said those figures are “subject to regulatory support”.

The plan will also see a shift towards fibre to the premises (FTTP), with BT saying it aims to reach two million premises with the technology, primarily in new housing developments, high streets and business parks.

“The UK is a digital leader today and it is vital that it remains one in the future,” said Gavin Patterson, BT Group Chief Executive. “That is why we are announcing a further six billion pounds of investment in our UK networks, subject to regulatory certainty.”

“Networks require money and a lot of it. Virgin and BT have both pledged to invest and we will now see if others follow our lead. Infrastructure competition is good for the UK and so is the current Openreach model whereby others can piggyback on our investment should they want to.

At the end of April, rival Virgin Media announced what it called the “largest UK fibre broadband rollout”, planned to bring FTTP to around a million premises as part of an expansion it calls “Project Lightning”.

The BT chief continued to say that part of its expansion will include G.fast – a fibre to the distribution point (FTTdp) technology that see optic fibre installed in the street and copper over the final section into the premises.

“G.fast will enable us to deploy ultrafast broadband at pace and to as many homes as possible. Customers want their broadband to be affordable as well as fast and we will be able to do that using G.fast,” he said.

Patterson added: “FTTP will also play a bigger role going forward and I believe it is particularly well suited to those businesses who may need speeds of up to 1Gbps. My ambition is to roll it out to two million premises and our trials give me confidence we will.”

BT’s new investment will also include improvements to customer service, with the company launching a number of initiatives “to better meet the evolving needs of its customers”.

“Customer expectations are increasing all the time and we need to work hard to meet those new demands. That is why contact centre work is being returned to the UK and why Openreach is aiming to halve the number of missed appointments within a year. Customers want higher standards of service and we are determined to provide them with just that,” said Patterson.

53 COMMENTS

  1. Some should advise them they are wasting 10’s of billions and that all the need to deliver is 15Mbps for the next decade. Oh and throw in its Conroy fault

    • Turnbull has nowhere to hide: the mum approaching him on innovation today didn’t even mention the internet and the quantum computing guy from New York on QandA two months ago received the whole electorates praise for saying the whole debate was dishonest.
      This will be the election issue if our kids Arctic sea ice doesn’t drop through the floor… which it will btw!
      People died for this country and with the sonic boom over Nationalism will increase and pennys will start to drop. Malcolm is up the creek and Shorten and Plibersek and especially Albo, Burke and …lol there are just so many who know Turnbull is fingered on every possible talking point of any substance.
      Go the clever country that turned impotent…. we are a global joke and that aint no lie- you couldn’t make these shennanigans up and apparently Murdoch is about to get his back up, lol… this shall be fun!

  2. Oh look, the fancy future tech of G.Fast, that tech bandied around by Reality et al as the saviour of FTTN… oh… wait… even BT talk about it as used with FTTdp which is decidedly NOT FTTN…..

    Oh…. oops… er…. Look over there! Labor’s mess! Debt and deficit crisis! We can’t afford it! Wasting taxpayers money! We should spend it on roads not on a porn and entertainment network! Other meaningless distractions!

    • The uncomfortable truth of the the decision to make a mess of the NBN by stopping the FttP rollout is apparent. Exacerbated more so when the countries the coalition clowns used as examples of what we should do are moving in the direction we were before we went backwards. Copper fanboy knuckle draggers are prone to diverting the discussion under normal circumstances but articles like this have their pea sized brains overheating from the amount of mental gymnastics they have to perform :-(

    • Defunding something and making a mess of it is a standard trick of conservatives who want to sell public owned services to their mates. The NBN is yet another victim of neo-liberal conservative ideology!

  3. UK is the classic comparison re effectiveness of a GBE vs private enterprise.

    BT started their upgrade a little after NBNCo was formed. Their FTTC upgrade has since passed 25m premises or 85% of the population whilst remaining profitable for a couple of billion pounds taxpayer subsidy (referring non-commerical markets). Virgin’s HFC upgrade also a success providing valuable infrastructure competition.

    Rather than delivering FTTP to every house BT’s is now proposing to extend it’s fibre’s reach further to high value customers (businesses) using a variety of technologies. NBNCo is yet to finalise a business product (see ACCC reported low uptake of higher speed TC-1 and near zero TC-2).

    NBNCo today is almost at 2m serviceable premises or 20% for a taxpayer equity injection ~$20b. This years loss along expected to be $2b on revenues of just $300m.

    Many other examples around the world. Discussions silenced.

        • No, I asked about FttN. Cant see a mention of that in your post, only FttC, which is different. If you dont understand why its different, perhaps you need to remove yourself from the debate.

          Again, when did BT start their FttN rollout? Hint: not 2016.

          If you fail to understand what I’m getting at its simple. We are STARTING FttN when the prime example given for our rollout is FINISHING with FttN and moving on.

          How is our plan looking, when every example given has moved on to better technology before we’ve had any statistically relevant rollout?

          FttN needs to be killed off before it becomes a costly mistake. Is that so hard to understand?

          • You believe BTs FTTC(abinet) rollout is materially different to our FTTN(ode)?

            BT uses ECI and Huawei gear, ours Alcatel (like North America). Fibre model the same.

            BT retains cabinet to exchange copper for less disruption and lower cost.

            But you’re right. If not for Conroy’s delusion the fixed line upgrade would be complete today. His policy 20% complete, order of magnitude more expensive for taxpayers already.

          • “If not for Conroy’s delusion the fixed line upgrade would be complete today”

            Apart from your unmitigated, disastrous MTM plan, your 2nd silliest, baseless and completely incorrect comment yet.

            You’re welcome.

          • See even here you still miss the point. We’re starting to build last generation when the rest of the world is building FttP. Amazing.

            FttN is tens of billions in wasted dollars if it gets built. There is zero time frame to recoup that cost before its overbuilt, or at least needs to be.

            How does Australia look in 2025 when we’re bragging about our worlds best FttN network, capable of 80 Mbps, while the rest of our competition has 1 Gbps and eyeing off 10 Gbps?

            You constantly belittle Labor’s rollout speed, and conveniently ignore the Liberal claim they would have a fully functioning MTM NBN by this election. Instead, we have what? 30,000 FttN thats different to what Labor planned. Less the rest of the FttP that could and should have been built by the Liberals in that time.

            Net effect, we’re further behind because of some bullshit political excuse that has been proven to be totally wrong.

            I just hope people pay attention with this, because it so clearly shows that the Liberals have no clue how to govern, and are just full of three word catchphrases.

          • @gg so BT’s FTTC isn’t materially different:-)

            I’ve not ignored the coalition’s pre-election claim (don’t believe the strawmen), actually pointed out the policy’s destruction post election (their timeline before the election).

            The NBN policy is a disaster (all models). The Coalition should never have bought into the delusion.

            Also the rest of the world isn’t building FTTP. BT’s announcement is only 20% FTTP (well FTTdp) servicing business premises. We could talk about many other international examples but Renai silenced the discussion (he could lift the ban anytime).

          • AGAIN, not the point. You keep ignoring the point that we’re STARTING when they’re FINISHING. How stupid are you? Really, what drives you to be so ignorant to miss numerous times the fact that the Liberals are pushing a decade old technology as something new and wonderful, despite every evidence to the contrary?

            FttC and FttN may be the exact same thing (they arent), that wasnt what I originally asked? Has NOTHING to do with what I asked, which was “When did BT start their FttN rollout?”. And you go off on a tangent.

            For what its worth, yes, FttC is materially different to FttN. They might look (and are) to be based on similar ideas, but the nodes are much closer with FttC than FttN, meaning a very different capability.

            Do a little research into what the different FttX rollouts mean. There are differences between every terminology used. Or is that inconvenient for you?

          • You believe BTs FTTC(abinet) rollout is materially different to our FTTN(ode)?

            It is materially different (hence why it isn’t called FttN).

            https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/FTTX.svg

            With FttC the cabinet is typically less than 300m from the premises, while FttN is greater than 300m (Malcolm’s MtM is looking at around 750-800m). And as we all know, less copper means better speeds with “coppertech™”.

    • Richard, you often mention billions invested in infrastructure over the years by private enterprise and that private enterprise is best placed to do it, but where is that? Mobile networks they have monopolistic hold of?

      Telstra had a decade to do something with the copper network and chose not to, and to wring it for every single cent they could and maintaining it with the bare minimum, private enterprise in Australia made it clear it wasn’t interested in fixed line broadband in Australia.

      • been covered many times, accepting the FTTHers goldfish memory we’ll go again.

        LLU saw rapid ADSL2+ and dark fibre investment around profitable to serve areas (the vast majority of Australians). Delivering vastly improved services and much better value.

        Trujillo was indeed a massive impediment, however he had announced his retirement in Feb 2009. Thodey took up his position a month after NBNCo was formed. Even before Thodey’s appointment he expressed a desire to work with the Govt. Worth noting exactly the same situation played out in the UK.

        Conroy, after his embarrassing executed expressions of interest first effort (that unsurprisingly concluded access to the CAN would be required for a FTTN network, duh), had an opportunity to re-engage. Though this is not his negotiation style (as shown during his tenure). Sadly he (egged on by the “experts” in academia) believed they could start and run a telco. History, as I’ve posted, isn’t kind to their overconfident (delusional?) position.

        Australia as a whole has unique challenges. Although internet provision to those residing in towns and cities is little different to many market. Conroy’s FTTH policy a utter failure by any comparison.

        Several other international MTM upgrades have been covered by myself before the discussion was shutdown. Dozens more available highlighting the comparative incompetence of Conroy’s policy folly. Canada would be instructive, big country what did they use?;-)

        • Thank you for pointing out that private enterprise has failed in this country for telecommunication

          Imagine if we had Thodey might have been a different story but doesn’t change history that Telstra did not want to spend billions on upgrade the network.

          • As pointed out we did have Thodey.

            Billions spent. Additional billions required a competent negotiator and regulatory certainty. We had Conroy.

            I could point to the relative success of the prior National Competiton Policy’s National Gas / Electricity Laws but too few here would understand the history.

          • Lol Richard changing history I didn’t know Thodey was around the time the FTTN tender was put out and Telstra came back with a 12 page document of nope I don’t want to do it.

            But keep going with that chestnut of $B was ready to be spent when history has shown the opposite.

            But again showing how private enterprise failed here but where successful else where.

          • Then you need to know history (timeline posted). Maybe HC can help with his historical “insights”;-)

          • Lol Richard
            “Thodey took up his position a month after NBNCo was formed.”

            But please keep trying your doing such a great job at it. Again where where these $B of dollars again from private enterprise

            But spending $56B for a network value of $27B is great value isn’t it Richard

          • @jk not great value at all. Oh wait I pointed out the taxpayer hit before that analysis was even published, whilst fanboys claiming any expenditure was an “investment”.

            Prior internet infrastructure cost nothing? Speak with internode, TPG, iiNet, pipe networks…

            Their investors will be devastated.

            Re Telstra billions we could point to their earlier committment rightly rejected by ACCC.

          • Lol Richard did they put in compliant bids for FTTN tender too? Where they rolling out national infrastructure too? From the sounds of it all metro areas should have good internet.

            Lol ACCC rejected Telsta good one. Telstra pulled out. Trying to rewrite history again I see.

          • Lol Richard thank you for the link
            “The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is perplexed by today’s announcement by Telstra that it has unilaterally decided to discontinue talks with the ACCC over Telstra’s proposed fibre-to-the-node network upgrade”
            So was it accc that stopped the talks as you claimed your not doing very well are you

        • “LLU saw rapid ADSL2+ and dark fibre investment around profitable to serve areas (the vast majority of Australians). ”
          As opposed to the full fiber rollout Telecom was saying needed to happen (before they were privatised).

          “Sadly he (egged on by the “experts” in academia) believed they could start and run a telco. History, as I’ve posted, isn’t kind to their overconfident (delusional?) position.”
          Like the PMG, which was a colossal failure. Started by Labour.

          “Canada would be instructive, big country what did they use?;-)”
          Oh look, the UK can no longer be used as the prime example of FTTN rollouts. Let’s move on to Canada, eh?

    • “UK is the classic comparison re effectiveness of a GBE vs private enterprise. ”

      what happens when private enterprise refuses though? is doing nothing still more effective?

      Also you’re talking about 4-5x our countries population in something the size of just Victoria.

      • Size doesn’t matter, only the population density of areas to be covered. Metro areas of Australian capitals still not serviced.

        • Thank you for pointing out that private enterprise has failed in this country for telecommunication

    • Excellent reply Richard.

      Was it to this article? Because pretty well nothing you waffled there fits what was said in it.

    • Yes, yes, BT cooperated, Telstra didn’t.

      You’re more long winded than Turnbull with even less substance.

      PS/ Your forgot to mention Jobs and Growth. FFS, stay on message

    • @ Richard,

      Yes, yes, groundhog day spiel noted *sigh*.

      But to the topic… I see yet another of the faithful abandoning you and your FTTP isn’t needed brigade.

      Seems you and a handful of blind, flat-earth, sound-a-likes here, are the only people on (that flat) earth of your’s, who actually still believe (and state as you did again only yesterday iirc) that FttP is not the end goal, with a clear inference if not an outright claim, that FTTP will never be needed…

      Is that right? FTTP will never be needed in your opinion?

      Discussion silenced indeed.

    • Private Enterprise – Telstra, Optus etc?

      The same Private Enterprise that has had 20 years to do something.

      The same private enterprise that tried infrastructure competition in the 1990’s with the hfc networks and failed.

      Our sector is a case study in what not to do – Private Enterprise has had 2 decades and has done nothing.

  4. Looks like the rest of Australia was right about FTTP and Malcolm was wrong.

    Even his favourite / model company realises that a dilapidated, copper noodle network is not the way to go.

    • Poor Malcolm has nowhere to turn… Abbott must feel so inadequate knowing it was actually all his fault!
      That sexy MP doesn’t know who she should have backed in the party room secret ballot and is why she will take her vote to the grave too embarassed for all involved including her own childrens childrens children!
      Go Australia: vote for inadequacy after all the people that died for your paper profit bubble economics McMansions and walk around with stupidly out of date Costello inspired grins why don’t ya!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
      Who was John Howard again?

    • What’s FTTP subscriber growth world wide subscriber growth got to do with the reasons in Australia for implementing a MtM by reusing existing in place infrastructure assets owned by the company rolling out the national MtM that also has a component of greenfields FTTP?

      I like this comment in the link.

      With the cost of installing and operating FTTP set to become cheaper than FTTN and HFC after seven years it’s vital that the government not scrimp when it comes to providing consumers,

      First of all the MtM is not rolling out new HFC anyway, secondly why won’t FTTN become cheaper in the seven year time frame?

      • You’re clearly not understanding what it means by “become cheaper than FTTN and HFC after seven years”

        It means, total cost of rollout + operating expenditure after seven years has FTTP pull ahead of a mix of FTTN and HFC.

        Sure, FTTN and HFC are cheaper to roll out initially, but then cost significantly more in operation thus, after 7 years it is equal to FTTP and after 7 years, FTTP is cheaper.

        • Don’t expect any critical thinking from him mate, if he can’t find an answer elsewhere that he can copy/paste, he’ll just ignore you.

          • He’ll ignore me, or argue the semantics of something I said.

            Either way, even if he can copy-paste an answer from somewhere, it will be nonsensical and irrelevant.

      • “First of all the MtM is not rolling out new HFC anyway”
        You’ve already been debunked on this : all those missed premises just going to go without, eh?

        How embarrassing for you, Alain.

    • What are you yammering about now? Show me where I said anything about Australia, MtM or the even the NBN in my post? The article is about “BT announces huge FTTP rollout to 2 million premises”…and as they and Virgin will be adding 10’s of millions to FttP, Mark will need to increase the FttP growth even further.

      Give some serious thought to signing up to this: http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/adult-literacy/

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