BT unveils business rates for new fibre service

BT's fibre service will be available in 31 exchanges from February

BT today announced the pricing plans for its new superfast fibre-to-the-cabinet service, promising download speeds of up to 40Mbit/s from £30 per month.

BT Total Broadband Business Fibre is built on the same infrastructure as its Infinity service launched last week, and will be available from 31 exchanges across the UK by early February on a variety of tariffs.

Prices start at £30 a month on a basic 24-month contract with a £75 connection charge and upload speeds of 2Mbit/s. A 12-month contract is available at £35 per month with the same connection fee.

BT will also offer a Fibre Plus service which provides a 10Mbit/sec upload service on a 24-month contract at £45 per month, or a 12-month contract at £50 per month.

Ashton Hunt, general manager of BT Business, acknowledged that the 40Mbit/sec download speed is at the very top end the service, but argued that it will meet the requirements of businesses users.

"We always quote speeds up to the top end in compliance with Ofcom regulations, but we think the speeds the new fibre offering will provide will be fast enough for small businesses to make the most of their broadband connections," he said.

Hunt also believes that the 10Mbit/sec upload speeds will be a big pull for many businesses, given the growing need to send files of ever-increasing size.

BT also said that business customers will be given improved throughput to offer priority to traffic coming through the network, allowing the service to run as efficiently as possible.

Hunt suggested that businesses should check with BT to determine whether the service is available in their area.