Kitz Forum
Announcements => News Articles => Topic started by: Bowdon on September 10, 2018, 10:39:48 AM
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https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2018/09/isp-sky-broadband-uk-to-sell-openreach-g-fast-and-fttp-broadband.html (https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2018/09/isp-sky-broadband-uk-to-sell-openreach-g-fast-and-fttp-broadband.html)
After a period of uncertainty it’s today been revealed that Sky Broadband has done a new wholesale deal with Openreach (BT) to sell the operator’s range of “ultrafast broadband” (G.fast and FTTP) services on to UK customers, which will come at a hefty price discount of up to 40%. Sky now hope to double their customer base.
Over the past year we’ve remarked a few times that Sky Broadband’s strategy in the UK has appeared to be at a standstill, while many of their competitors have moved to build their own “full fibre” (FTTP/H) networks. Part of this has been due to the on-going bidding war for ownership of Sky plc by Comcast and Fox / Disney, which has yet to be officially resolved.
The fact that Sky’s CEO effectively ruled the company out of building their own Gigabit capable FTTP broadband network in 2016 has also set a certain tone, albeit an unusual one for what is still the United Kingdom’s second largest broadband ISP (c.6.2 million customers with c.60% still on their unbundled ADSL2+ lines and the rest taking superfast FTTC / VDSL2 via Openreach).
The good news is that Sky has finally made a decision on their immediate future and it involves throwing their support behind Openreach’s national infrastructure, as opposed to building away from it. The deal will involve a wholesale price reduction, which appears to be based off the new volume discount scheme that was launched in July 2018.
A Spokesperson for Sky said:
“Openreach’s deal, with lower wholesale pricing, enables us to accelerate take-up of ultrafast and full fibre broadband across the UK, while ensuring that competition at a network level remains strong.”
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Well I don't like to say I told you so. But I told you ;D
I've been saying for a few years that eventually Sky and BT/OR, former rivals, would come together and combine their resources to help each other, and here it is!
The signals were there earlier in the year when they started doing deals between each other about sports tv rights, allowing BT Sport for Sky customers etc.
We also know that Sky are eventually going to do away with the satellites they use and eventually move over to broadcasting over the internet, probably Now TV was an early experiment to see how successful it is.
For there to be a solid high speed connection, only full fibre can be the end game for Sky.
Ok, another prediction, Sky will go in to a joint investment project to help BT/OR build FTTP faster with more resources. I think this discount they have been given today is a forerunner to them getting a discount on all BT/OR laid fibre once the Sky investment money comes in. That's my prediction.. hope I'm right lol.
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brilliant ! sign me up......all I need though is the non existent pod ::)
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There is no metion of G.Fast or FTTP via Sky site (fibre broadband section area)
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Ok, another prediction, Sky will go in to a joint investment project to help BT/OR build FTTP faster with more resources. I think this discount they have been given today is a forerunner to them getting a discount on all BT/OR laid fibre once the Sky investment money comes in. That's my prediction.. hope I'm right lol.
Sky haven't been given any discount - they can't be as Openreach's prices are regulated - all there is a temporary special offer by OR which is open to all ISPs.
This is more like Sky being late to the FTTP/g.fast party, as they were late to launch FTTC years ago and trying to make the delay sound good to their shareholders.
Still good news for OR as it should encourage takeup of gfast (though not necessarily FTTP - as that's usually not a customer choice but how the network locally is built)
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Sky haven't been given any discount - they can't be as Openreach's prices are regulated - all there is a temporary special offer by OR which is open to all ISPs.
This is more like Sky being late to the FTTP/g.fast party, as they were late to launch FTTC years ago and trying to make the delay sound good to their shareholders.
^This.
See:
GEN036/18 Volume commitment special offer on GEA-FTTC, G.fast and GEA-FTTP (https://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/updates/briefings/generalbriefings/generalbriefingsarticles/gen03618.do)
24/07/2018 - This briefing provides 28 days' notification of a volume commitment special offer on GEA-FTTC, G.fast and GEA-FTTP
Openreach is pleased to announce the notification of a new GEA special offer which we believe will; i) benefit our CPs and their customers; ii) drive an increase in the take-up of superfast and ultrafast services across the UK; iii) raise the average speeds received by end customers across the UK.
The discount offer is open to all CPs, including smaller CPs and new entrants, and contains options for CPs to choose a 3-year or 5-year term to sign up to in exchange for discounted pricing on five available tiers.
We initially flagged our intentions in this area at the Copper and Fibre Products Commercial Group (CFPCG) industry forum on 14 February 2018, and have worked closely with our CP customers to develop a tiered structure that we believe could benefit all our CPs and their end customers.
The offer provides CPs discounts for hitting 2 targets:
1. Volume and Bandwidth Mix target - containing targets on total fibre base, mix of customers on higher tiers (80Mbps and over) and mix of customers on Ultrafast technologies (GEA-FTTP and G.fast). The targets on Ultrafast will commence only in the second year of the deal and will be linked to a minimum build commitment provided by Openreach
2. Forecasting accuracy target - CPs will have to provide 6-month forecasts and will be paid a portion of the rebate based on this metric.
The offer term is broken into 6-month periods over which a CP’s performance against its target is measured and any discounts will be paid back as a rebate in the month following the end of the period.
The discounted prices within the offer are available on all variants of GEA-FTTC products (including G.fast) across the country and in some GEA-FTTP locations (mainly New Sites and BDUK areas, excluding Fibre First cities). However all GEA-FTTP volumes will continue to count towards the offer targets.
Details of the pricing tiers can be found here.
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I've been saying for a few years that eventually Sky and BT/OR, former rivals, would come together and combine their resources to help each other, and here it is!
Not what I'm reading. No joint venture. Sky are simply gong to start selling OpenReach products that they currently choose not to.
The discounts are available to all ISP's.
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As mentioned in the Telegraph article (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/09/09/sky-deal-openreach-aims-double-superfast-broadband-base/) the key significance of today's announcement is
Sky has committed to sell superfast or ultrafast services to at least 84pc of its broadband customers within five years. At its last results more than six out of 10 of its 6.2 million subscribers were still on basic packages.
1. This will make ADSL LLU a lot easier for Ofcom to eventually sunset/remove from the network
2. Openreach have just got themselves another major GEA customer making it eadier to justify their future investment in FTTC/g.fast/FTTP
3. Conversely, alternative telcos have lost the opportunity to do a Cityfibre/Vodafone type deal with Sky
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This can only come as good news. I really hope Sky can help push FTTP. I've said for 10+ years that we need FTTP, and Sky obviously realise this because they want to be able to deliver TV, and streaming to multiple devices etc.
I think I may have to hang onto my Sky FTTC line now in case there is some way I can get a discount further down the line..
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Sky could restrict of special discount if FTTP can be brought along with Sky TV Subscription only as part of bundles. This way I will always avoid Sky TV rip off price.
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I think perhaps the article tends to imply something more exciting than it actually is. :(
It could just as well have said Sky have abandoned putting any of their own investment into FTTP (ala York) and instead are now going to use Openreach to be able to deliver FTTP & g.fast to their customers.
The Openreach Volume Commitment Discount just means they get it cheaper, but that offer is open to any ISP who wants to take them up on it.
atm there are few ISPs who do offer FTTP or G.fast packages.
The good news is that this is an incentive for more ISPs to also start offering packages for the consumer. atm the choice is mostly BTretail/consumer. I think TT & some of the smaller ISP's do too but its usually on a trial basis although I'm happy to be corrected as I haven't checked.
I'm quite sure that BTconsumer will also take up on the volume commitment discount - they did for the previous bulk discount offer.
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This can only come as good news. I really hope Sky can help push FTTP. I've said for 10+ years that we need FTTP, and Sky obviously realise this because they want to be able to deliver TV, and streaming to multiple devices etc.
To be honest, I don't expect Sky to push FTTP or even g.fast services that hard - what they will do is encourage their ADSL customers to switch to fibre and that's also where any decent financial incentives/pricing will be centered around (rather than for their existing customers)
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To be honest, I don't expect Sky to push FTTP or even g.fast services that hard - what they will do is encourage their ADSL customers to switch to fibre and that's also where any decent financial incentives/pricing will be centered around (rather than for their existing customers)
Actually, yeah, this is more likely :(
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> We also know that Sky are eventually going to do away with the satellites they use
Mrs Weaver used to use Sky Satellite TV but got rid of it last autumn and went for Freesat instead, on which you can get BBC and ITV, I think, the usual mix. Dumping Sky saved us £30 per month, maybe a lot more. But we are always going to want satellite TV of some sort, as it is a massive source of free bandwidth. It’s reliable, as we have an oversized dish, which is mounted really low down and is sheltered by the house from the gales that come from the southwest.
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Did you get a new dish when you moved to Freesat or are you using the Sky dish (and did it need adjusting). The previous owner of our house had Sky and we plugged in a Humax Freesat box and it just worked.
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A Sky dish shouldn't need adjusting to receive Freesat. As you said it should "just work".