The BT fibre network has already connected over three and a half million users (as of June 2015) and demand for bandwidth is growing around 40 per cent every year. The Government has already stated that it wants to achieve 95 per cent fibre coverage of the UK by the end of 2017 and Openreach is well on the way to achieving that target, at least according to Ed Vaizey, Minister of State for Culture and the Digital Economy. For resellers the question is how to maximise this opportunity for businesses. Here are five reasons why BT should be part of that solution.
1. Unlimited should mean unlimited
The clue is in the definition and resellers looking for fibre partners should be wary. Any supplier that leads on price alone, especially in a business market where reliability and coverage demands are greater has to compensate somewhere. Are all those promises of unlimited deals really unlimited?
BT offers unlimited download to all customers. Demand for capacity is clearly increasing rapidly with evolving applications such as voice and video internet calling, internet videos for business training and briefings in addition to You Tube and industry application downloads .BT is continually working to stay abreast of increasing market and industry requirements for improved bandwidth capacity, speeds and coverage.
2. Network scale and coverage
Ensuring a reliable, fast throughput and scalable service is essential for businesses. BT’s WBC and WBMC networks give resellers access to the full Openreach-enabled footprints from the first day an exchange is declared open and the first cabinet declared active. This enables resellers to maximise the opportunity for increased capacity and services for customers. BT has access to over 23 million premises across over 4,200 exchanges.
The main thrust for this has been a fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) approach, utilising parts of the installed copper network that can cope with the increased demands of fibre speeds. The key advantage here of course is speed to market and coverage without compromising on speed. While using existing copper is not as ideal as a fibre to the premises (FTTP) approach, it is extremely high quality given the use of G.fast technology, which has impressive speeds of around 700/200Mbps over 66m lines, a distance that encompasses around 80 per cent of connections.
BT continually invests in its network to ensure it can deliver its SLA’s on fibre. As the network and end user volumes continue to grow significantly every week, BT continues to expand its service and experience. Today BT’s NGA fibre broadband network is around 6 times larger than the closest NGA/FTTC competitor, as of June 2015, based on EU volumes.
3. Single order journey
No one likes a complex order process. BT customers can upgrade or order Fibre Broadband through a single order journey making it easy to sell. Keep it simple. BT offers both its eco+ (portal) and B2B (XML) interfaces for fibre orders and service. Resellers can order FTTC at the same time as a new line or upgrade from ADSL to FTTC and move between suppliers easily. This is not a two-staged process with unwelcome gaps of service in between.
4. TCO and maintenance
Ensuring an attractive total cost of ownership (TCO) underpins BT’s approach to product and service costs. This has been honed through experience. BT has managed FTTX products for over six years now. It also has a team with decades of collective experience in managing all aspects of the broadband product portfolio, from availability through provision, fault management, network performance and new feature and product introduction.
This translates into a team and product portfolio designed to help resellers maximise the potential of fibre for new and existing customers. An important ingredient to this is peace of mind, which is why BT’s fibre portfolio comes with its full range of maintenance options, as well as options to expedite provision request and add on features from its WBC/WBMC portfolio. This enables resellers to tailor products to individual customer needs.
5. New technology developments
Certainly fibre is still in its infancy. While we delivered our first G.fast customer in August and our first FTTP on demand 2 (FoD2) customer in September 2015 (as part of Openreach trials working with our channel partners), we are looking to the next phases of our NGA2 strategy. This is essential. Any supplier worth its salt has to continually push boundaries. BT has made innovation a habit in its culture, a necessity to continuing development and not a superficial or purely reactive act. Join us on this journey.