Yeah, it's a good article based on data they've collected. Unlike before, the estimates don't necessarily always appear to scale with distance (though it is clear that those further away are more likely to be charged more because of the actual distance, work associated with ducts, etc.).
There was recently a discussion at thinkbroadband where people shared their estimates (
http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/fibre/4586020-fttpod-unreal-pricing.html).
What should be understood is that these are just estimates. There is evidence to suggest that the costs can be much, much lower than the estimates if you are willing to proceed with a survey costing you £250 ex. VAT. I have not heard of it being more than the estimate.
If you ask for an estimate from a provider that offers FTTPoD, you will be provided with the estimated cost and the amount of premises that will be able to get FTTP because of your build. However, if you can collaborate with your neighbours and get them to submit orders to link with yours then the good thing is that the government has the
Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (more info at
https://gigabitvoucher.culture.gov.uk/) which apparently each applicant can use to put towards the cost of the installation (£500 for residential, and £3,000 for businesses). Furthermore, each premises under a linked order will give a discount of £700 ex. VAT so the more neighbours submitting linked orders, the better.
Of course, this requires collaboration between you and your neighbours. The provider you ask to generate an estimate may be able to provide you with the addresses covered by fibre DP which would make neighbour hunting a lot easier. But you would still need to confront them.
One thing to note is the cost associated with line rental/service costs during the first 12 months as it is rather expensive, and 12 months is the minimum term. As an example, using Cerberus (
https://www.cerberusnetworks.co.uk/connectivity-broadband/cerberus-fttp-and-gfast) during the on demand period would cost £120.00 a month (for 300/30 Mbps); some providers may be more expensive. Everybody in the linked order will be subject to this cost for the 12 months. However, after the 12 months, it will be classed as native FTTP which means you could move to a different provider or re-grade to a native product offering (which is certainly going to be a lot cheaper).
I do not want to go into detail with my estimate but considering the amount of premises covered by the rollout it would certainly work out as next to nothing to build the network if every neighbour chipped in. However, I know that the desire for it is low due to the demographics, and considering every single one of them should be able to get the full or near full 80/20 Mbps if they wanted then it just would not make sense for most of them (I think a lot are probably still ADSLx
). And I know that the ongoing monthly charges would probably be a bit of a hit until it becomes native.
