The new offer was developed after industry consultation, with Openreach saying it "aims to encourage adoption of the new technology" through four principles: commitment, pricing certainty, simplicity and competitive prices (see table below).
The offer will be open between 1 October and 30 March 2022. The "long-term pricing certainty" will last until 30 September 2031 and be available across Openreach's entire FTTP footprint. Discounts are available where customers choose to place new orders with Openreach and commit to making a percentage of those on the FTTP network, as it expands.
Katie Milligan, MD of customer, commercials and propositions at Openreach said: “Nobody’s building full fibre broadband faster, further, or at a higher quality than Openreach, and we’re well on track to reach 25 million premises by December 2026.
“At the same time we’re determined to make full fibre the default option for customers throughout the UK, so we’ve been working closely with communications providers to offer simple and competitive pricing which gives them the long-term certainty and flexibility they need.
“We believe this offer makes full fibre a must-have for every home and business, and it means more people could start benefitting from our most revolutionary and reliable broadband sooner.”
BT is investing £15 billion to build the gigabit-capable network and reported that it is making the technology available to 43,000 premises every week, with more than five million homes and businesses already able to place an order.
In March Ofcom announced its plans for the fixed wholesale market, confirming that more than two-thirds of UK properties will have a choice of fibre networks in future. The same month, Openreach raised its copperline prices.
In Italy yesterday, BT Italia completed the sale of two of its business units to TIM, serving customers in the public administration and SME segments. BT will maintain what it termed a "strong presence" in Italy by serving large enterprises and multinational companies, including access points to its global network.
