Openreach unveils new high-speed broadband tiers

Source: Openreach

Openreach, the BT-owned infrastructure outfit, has notified UK service provders that it plans to launch what it describes as two new ‘turbo-charged’ speed tiers.  

The two new tiers, which will push download speeds to 1.2Gbps and 1.8Gbps, with both offering upload speeds of 120Mbps, will be available across Openreach’s full fibre network, which currently reaches 13 million homes and businesses across the UK.

Available to order from April 1, Open reach says the offers will enable its service provider customers to sell 1Gbps and 1.5Gbps products.

The new speed tiers build on Openreach’s existing FTTP portfolio which offers end customers speeds of up to 1Gbps (with 115Mbps upload for homes and 220Mbps for business lines), with real-world average download speeds starting at around 900Mbps, according to the company.

Openreach said that pilots for both new FTTP tiers had performed well with early adopter EE’s test results showing consistently solid performance, with a number of other providers now joining the trials.

Consumers can have a new fibre ONT fitted as standard, enabling them to choose one of the new services. Customers with an existing fibre service, can upgrade to the new speed tiers via a box-swap where an Openreach engineer will replace their existing ONT with a newer model. Service providers will also need to supply new routers.

Openreach product manager Matthew Sledge, said: “Demand for high-definition streaming, online gaming, video conferencing, and other bandwidth-intensive applications has spurred a huge increase in how much broadband data we all use – and consumption is rising every single year.

“Our new turbo-charged speed tiers demonstrate how our Full Fibre network is future proofed to meet these ever growing demands. And with the largest Full Fibre footprint in the UK – we’ve made sure these new speeds can provide the biggest benefit and are available to all 13 million homes and businesses that can access our Full Fibre network – whether people are living in a city, town or small remote village.”