Is it me, but is news on areas that are getting further upgrading to FTTP thin on the ground?
But trying to find any other info the council don't seem to have an interest, BT as far as I can make out think if you have 80/20 you need no more. So it just leaves VM who are currently digging up our streets with gusto!
The cost I understand but when your now selling to all LLU/ISP surely it's better to invest positively and sell on that investment rather than sounding like a Scottish motor mechanic doing a quote!
These are some good questions that I can answer. Yes, areas that are being upgraded to FTTP are thin on the ground. These are mostly areas that either have no FTTC or slow FTTC being upgraded under the BDUK programme. The bulk of the rest is/will be new build properties and some industrial estates and commercial areas. I can answer it with the help of the first quote I emboldened. BT don't think if you have 80/20 you need no more, customers do. The vast majority of those that can purchase FTTP purchase 80/20 or lower. This leaves zero business case for Openreach to overbuild the FTTC with FTTP as they are in line for zero additional revenue until people decide 80/20 is inadequate, which is probably a little way away.
The second bit I emboldened is another reason why they are reticent about spending. LLU operators don't want Openreach FTTP. They want customers on copper all the way from home to exchange, where it terminates on their equipment. They rent the copper from Openreach and get all the revenue from broadband ADSL and voice. They aren't as fond of FTTC and showed a fair amount of resistance to it as it made some of their equipment in the exchange redundant and reduced their control over the service. They are even less fond of FTTP as, in a pure FTTP scenario, they have no control at all over the physical media and their MSANs, the kit previously terminating ADSL broadband and voice, becomes useless. The FTTP will go straight into the exchange and connect to an LLU operator's switch leaving the copper stuff redundant.
LLO operators were hoping for point to point fibre they could rent from Openreach and place their own equipment either side of the fibre. What they've gotten is the solution being delivered by South Korea, Singapore, Japan, etc, where they are delivered a bitstream, not an optical signal, that may emulate LLU to an extent but still places control within Openreach's space.
That they have to wholesale further reduces their revenues. Openreach get a cut for supplying the service, the LLU operators taking feeds straight from the exchange get all the rest, and in the case of BT Wholesale and other wholesale providers they pay Openreach, take payment from their ISP customers and take a cut in between.
If Openreach were allowed to remove copper completely and force everyone in an area to take FTTP that would improve the business case. LLU operators demand that the copper remains so that they can continue to sell their cheap ADSL. Likewise if BT were able to keep the FTTP network to themselves for a period and have no requirement to allow anyone else to use it that would improve the business case dramatically. Those two factors are how Verizon in the USA have been able to justify their fibre build, FiOS. It's just for them and they've removed the copper when they've installed the fibre.