BT Offers Fibre Incentives

BT has introduced a new incentive for selling its BT Infinity fibre-based broadband, even before it is available in most areas: the company is promising free Infinity upgrades to users who sign up now for one of its conventional broadband packages.

The move underscores the importance of fibre-based broadband, which is being rolled out aggressively by the likes of BT and Virgin Media, and which the government has identified as a key factor in the UK’s economic competitiveness.

Free line connection

The offer means that users who sign up for BT Total Broadband broadband and telephone bundles will be able to upgrade to Infinity at no extra monthly charge when the service arrives in their area. The offer applies to customers signing up for BT Total Broadband Options 2 and 3.

Certain bundle customers will also be offered a free Infinity line connection, saving themselves a further £25. The Infinity service is priced starting at £17.99 per month, with a discount for the first free months.

Infinity offers download speeds of up to 40Mbps and upload speeds of up to 10Mbps, but isn’t yet widely available. The telco has currently connected 1.5 million UK premises, and its target is to roll out fibre to 10 million premises by 2012, 16.5 million by 2014 and to two-thirds of UK premises by 2015.

Until Infinity becomes available users would be signing up for standard ADSL-based BT Total Broadband, which offers download speeds of up to 20Mbps, according to BT.

Marketing criticism

BT has already been criticised for its marketing of Infinity, with the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) banning an advertisement that used the word “instant” to describe fibre-based broadband. The ASA has also banned a BT ad for its standard broadband.

In June the European commission backed Ofcom’s proposals that BT should provide rival Internet Service Providers (ISPs) with the same degree of access to its new fibre optic network that it currently provides to its existing copper-based infrastructure. BT will be allowed to offer rival ISPs access to the new fibre network through Virtual Unbundled Local Access (VULA), or “virtual unbundling”.

BT has rolled out fibre connections to some rural areas, such as the village of Iwade in Kent, with the support from government grants.

Competition

Other fibre operators, including Virgin Media as well as smaller operators such as Vtesse Networks, are looking to compete with BT in the fibre market, but the government recently ruled out a review of business rates on fibre networks, seen as a barrier to fibre rollouts.

The government has signalled the importance of a next-generation network in the UK with a pledge to force water and electricity companies to open their ducting, although a sewer fibre rollout plan in Bournmouth came to nothing due to contractual problems between the two parties involved.