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Announcements => News Articles => Topic started by: Bowdon on May 09, 2019, 11:43:04 AM

Title: New BT CEO Reports Ultrafast Broadband Cover of 3.2M UK Premises
Post by: Bowdon on May 09, 2019, 11:43:04 AM
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2019/05/new-bt-ceo-reports-ultrafast-broadband-cover-of-3-2m-uk-premises.html (https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2019/05/new-bt-ceo-reports-ultrafast-broadband-cover-of-3-2m-uk-premises.html)

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BT Group’s new CEO has released his first full year results to the end of March 2019 (Q4 18/19 financial), which finds that Openreach’s FTTP and G.fast based “ultrafast broadband” (100Mbps+) ISP network has grown its coverage to 3.2 million UK premises (up from 2.6m last quarter). Take-up of FTTP is 24.54% and G.fast 1.24%.

I wonder when the G.fast coverage figure is printed of 2,020,000 if that number includes pods that are attached to the cabinet but arent actually available for sale?

I found this quote interesting from the CEO Philip Jansen;

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Since joining the company three months ago, it has become clear to me just how fundamental BT’s role is in connecting our society.

That seems to be a dig at the previous path of spending millions on sports rights. Now it looks like this guy is wanting to get back to the fundamentals of running a first class high speed broadband network. I think Jansen is exactly what BT/OR need right now.
Title: Re: New BT CEO Reports Ultrafast Broadband Cover of 3.2M UK Premises
Post by: gt94sss2 on May 09, 2019, 01:43:41 PM
That seems to be a dig at the previous path of spending millions on sports rights. Now it looks like this guy is wanting to get back to the fundamentals of running a first class high speed broadband network.

I wouldn't be so sure (https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/may/09/champions-league-fever-fuels-spike-in-bt-sport-subscriptions-ceo-philip-jansen):

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Champions League fever is gripping the nation as the dramatic comeback wins from Liverpool and Tottenham fuel a big increase in the number of fans signing up to BT Sport, which holds the exclusive UK rights to the tournament, ahead of the final on 1 June.

The new BT chief executive, Philip Jansen, who took over from Gavin Patterson in February, claimed that BT had fielded an “astounding” amount of traffic through its call centres from football fans seeking to sign up to BT Sport to catch the first all-English final since 2008.

Jansen did not reveal any figures but said the two semi-final thrillers had proved to be hugely popular. He said: “The [call centre traffic] has been astounding but obviously we don’t reveal numbers. What is really interesting is app usage [to watch the matches], tablets … the numbers are amazing.”

Jansen also confirmed that BT would bid to retain the Champions League rights for a further three seasons from 2021 when they come up for auction later this year.

I usually suspect statements about how important BT's role is in the UK economy are usually designed as a gentle reminder to government/Ofcom..
Title: Re: New BT CEO Reports Ultrafast Broadband Cover of 3.2M UK Premises
Post by: kitz on May 09, 2019, 04:14:01 PM
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Take-up of FTTP is 24.54% and G.fast 1.24%.

Those figures are IMHO rather telling.   
Whilst it could perhaps in part be down to the lack of SP's (& marketing) offering G.fast, I hope it drives home what the longer term ROI would be for Openreach.
Yes it's not the full story, but I can't help but wonder if the original plans of what appeared to be also g.Fast deployed from the dP, or even FTTdp would have been a better option.   I guess it is still relative early days for g.fast, but take up of just 1.24% to me seems rather low?

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I usually suspect statements about how important BT's role is in the UK economy are usually designed as a gentle reminder to government/Ofcom.

I would tend to agree.   Whilst we can't deny they do have a monopoly,  I do at times feel that BT/Openreach do tend to be treated a little bit unfairly when it comes to certain aspect which does in part deter them from future investment and holding back on what could have been a more futuristic design.    Their original plan of full 21CN got shelved years ago :(



Title: Re: New BT CEO Reports Ultrafast Broadband Cover of 3.2M UK Premises
Post by: j0hn on May 09, 2019, 07:01:36 PM
G.Fast is a horrible tech and I think the take up rate will remain very poor, but in its defence there are reasons why it's so poor in comparison to FTTP.

The majority of people would notice the physical work going on in their streets to bring FTTP. It's a very visible upgrade.

The majority of people wouldn't even notice a G.Fast pod appearing, never mind knowing what it was for.

The fact nobody puts a leaflet/letter through someone's door for new OpenReach services (FTTC/G.Fast/FTTP) doesn't help.
The only publicity for upgrades seems to be a couple stickers on BDUK FTTC cabinets saying fibre broadband has arrived.

There's also the fact that much of the OpenReach FTTP is on new builds that are fibre only, so FTTP is the only option.
Title: Re: New BT CEO Reports Ultrafast Broadband Cover of 3.2M UK Premises
Post by: Weaver on May 09, 2019, 07:21:17 PM
This is very much against common sense and accepted wisdom but I wonder if under certain conditions, monopolies can actually be helpful? (Depending on how you define ‘good’, that’s part of the problem and one which won’t go away.)
Title: Re: New BT CEO Reports Ultrafast Broadband Cover of 3.2M UK Premises
Post by: burakkucat on May 09, 2019, 10:43:23 PM
If the G.Fast deployment model was adjusted so that it reverted back to as originally planned, i.e. FTTDP, then Weaver's Internet connection problems would be over and even I might be tempted to migrate from ADSL2 (ITU-T G.992.3) . . .
Title: Re: New BT CEO Reports Ultrafast Broadband Cover of 3.2M UK Premises
Post by: gt94sss2 on May 10, 2019, 12:36:31 PM
Yes it's not the full story, but I can't help but wonder if the original plans of what appeared to be also g.Fast deployed from the dP, or even FTTdp would have been a better option.   I guess it is still relative early days for g.fast, but take up of just 1.24% to me seems rather low?

As you say the FTTP vs g.fast figures won't be the full story - we would need to see g.fast takeup over time on specific cabs as otherwise the increase in coverage will negatively impact take-up as a percentage or the actual number of subscribers.

As I have just posted elsewhere, its actually quite interesting that when BT/OR announced their latest increase in FTTP targets, they didn't announce (another) decrease in planned g.fast coverage.

With FTTP, much of this has historcially been on new build or rural areas where customers there is no choice but to go FTTP or the only alternative is likely to be ADSL.
Title: Re: New BT CEO Reports Ultrafast Broadband Cover of 3.2M UK Premises
Post by: Bowdon on May 14, 2019, 02:18:50 PM
The fact nobody puts a leaflet/letter through someone's door for new OpenReach services (FTTC/G.Fast/FTTP) doesn't help.

In my experience a lot of people on FTTC think they are on full fibre.

So with them thinking they are on a full fibre product, and then experiencing all the problems we get from fttc/g.fast products, its giving the real full fibre a bad name even before the average man and woman on the street ever get to fully experience it.

It would be good if someone put out an information leaflet when new products became available.
Title: Re: New BT CEO Reports Ultrafast Broadband Cover of 3.2M UK Premises
Post by: stevebrass on May 14, 2019, 07:15:07 PM
This is very much against common sense and accepted wisdom but I wonder if under certain conditions, monopolies can actually be helpful? (Depending on how you define ‘good’, that’s part of the problem and one which won’t go away.)

Monopolies can be helpful if they are regulated sensibly. Problem is Governments tend not to want to spend enough on good regulation so just break monopolies up. Especially state monopolies.
Title: Re: New BT CEO Reports Ultrafast Broadband Cover of 3.2M UK Premises
Post by: Chrysalis on May 15, 2019, 08:19:56 AM
I think for physical products monopolies are bad.

For services its not so clear cut.