Network access provider Openreach has announced a new special offer on bandwidth modifies, which essentially makes it cheaper for UK ISPs to upgrade customers on Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC / VDSL2) and SOGEA broadband lines to an 80Mbps max download (20Mbps upload) speed.
The deal, which will be available for a period of six months between 4th September 2023 to 4th March 2024, is designed to help ISPs to upgrade customers on slower 18/2Mb, 40/2Mb, 40/10Mb and 55/10Mb packages to their top 80/20Mbps tier on hybrid fibre lines.
During this period, Openreach will waive the usual bandwidth modify charge (including for bulk upgrades) and offer a “discount on rental price so that the previous lower rental price continues to apply for a period of 6 months from the date the bandwidth modify order is completed“.
Broadband ISPs that do not wish to be charged the full 80Mbps rental charge from the end of the reduced 6-month rental period will be able to do this, albeit only by placing an order to downgrade back to lower speeds to apply from the relevant date. Check out the public briefing for more details.
The promotion may be attractive to some consumers in areas with no modern FTTP options, although the usual caveats of FTTC lines apply, due to the impact of signal degradation over distance. Put another way, a lot of premises may struggle to get even close to the top 70-80Mbps speed on FTTC lines, and thus this new offer won’t offer those lines much benefit.
The offer’s availability to consumers is also dependent upon ISPs’ choosing to pass it on to their customers as an option. But Openreach rarely launches an offer without ISPs expressing some interest first.