(Image Credit: iStockPhoto/Pali Rao)
BT has revealed wholesale pricing for Openreach’s initial G.fast broadband rollout, which offers “up to” 330Mbps download speeds for homes and businesses.
G.fast technology is projected to reach roughly 29 million premises by 2029, and BT has been leading trial efforts. In previous reports, BT began field trials of G.fast in multiple locations. Joe Garner, CEO of Openreach, described the testing as the start of a new chapter in building Britain’s connected future, calling it one of the largest G.fast trials in the world and a product of BT’s research and development work.
By January, the pilot will be active in 17 locations across the UK, with a goal of reaching 138,000 premises by the end of March. Openreach’s current plan aims to cover most of the UK by 2025, which translates to roughly 60 percent of premises.
G.fast Pilot Pricing from 9th January 2017
- £49 for a managed engineer installation using a CP device; £99 for a managed engineer installation with an Openreach modem.
- £9.95/month + VAT rental for both the 160/30Mbps and 330/50Mbps tiers.
For comparison, Openreach’s current 80Mbps FTTC/VDSL2 service is around £49 + VAT for a self-install, with an annual rental of £119.40 (equivalent to £9.95 per month, matching G.fast’s initial rental). Openreach’s 330Mbps FTTP service carries a £92 connection charge and an annual rental of £355.32 (£29.61 per month).
Early G.fast deployments are expected to deliver speeds near 300Mbps, with plans to increase capacity toward 500Mbps later—both well above the broadband speeds most consumers currently receive.
The European Commission set a target to connect 50 percent of premises with speeds of 100Mbps or higher by 2020. Industry analysts believe this target will accelerate G.fast deployments as operators strive to meet policy goals. As a result, Western Europe is likely to see broader G.fast availability compared with other regions, where deployment is expected to be more cautious. Analysts estimate only a small share—between 1 and 4 percent—of fixed broadband subscribers in some regions will migrate to G.fast in the near term.
Beyond G.fast, the next-generation XG-FAST is under development at Bell Labs and has already demonstrated record speeds in tests, achieving up to 10Gbps in laboratory conditions.
Culture Secretary John Whittingdale commented that the UK leads Europe in superfast broadband coverage and speeds, with tens of thousands more homes and businesses gaining access every week through government-supported rollout. He welcomed continued investment and innovation from industry players like BT, noting that such efforts help the UK remain competitive and support its position as a world-leading digital economy.
In its G.fast tests, BT has used equipment from several international vendors, including ADTRAN, Alcatel-Lucent, and Huawei. The company is also collaborating with chipset makers and global standards bodies to refine the technology and improve performance and speeds.
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