Monday, March 14, 2011

UK - Low take-up of FTTC in Wales frustrating to incumbent operator

[think broadband] BT Openreach have stated their frustration at the low take up of next-generation fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) technology in Wales despite an intensive advertising campaign promoting BT Infinity to customers. Cardiff is one area that the company has highlighted as seeing poor adoption of the new faster services which it is rolling out through a £2.5bn investment program.

The problem is not limited to just Cardiff, with other enabled areas also seeing low take up. One exception is Whitchurch, one of the areas selected under BT's initial FTTC pilot program, which has seen 7% of premises connect up to the new service.

BT will be looking to ramp up local awareness through focused marketing in the Cardiff and will be joining forces with Cardiff Council to try and encourage adoption of the new services.

There are various reasons why people may not have opted to take the new services. Many ISP's still don't currently offer FTTC broadband, with BT Retail as the only large operator to do so, and BT may not necessarily be a customers first choice. Our fibre broadband guide offers a quick reference of providers who currently offer FTTC broadband. TalkTalk will be coming on board soon having announced their fibre broadband boost. Some people who are interested may be restricted by contracts tying them to their existing provider, or be put off by higher prices charged by some operators for the faster service.

Of course, there will be those that are just not interested. If current broadband speeds are sufficient to allow people to browse the web, catchup with friends via e-mail and access BBC iPlayer, what advantage will they get by upgrading to the faster products.

Low take-up of FTTC broadband services frustrating BT

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