BT announces pricing for duct and pole broadband products

BT Openreach has released proposed pricing and designs for its new duct and pole sharing products which could increase the ways in which ISPs deliver superfast broadband services.

BT claims that the proposed pricing of the duct sharing product compares very favourably with similar solutions in other European markets, and starts from 95p per metre per annum. BT is also offering a pole sharing price of £21 per pole attachment.

"We've listened to the views and requirements of our customers, and will continue to work closely with industry and Ofcom to finalise the details of our duct and pole sharing products," said Steve Robertson, chief executive of BT Openreach.

"Although we do not view duct and pole sharing as the silver bullet to get fibre to every premises in the UK, these new products represent a positive step, opening our infrastructure to supply the industry with an even wider range of mechanisms for delivering fibre broadband."

Robertson also urged comms providers using BT's duct and pole products to open up their own infrastructure to other operators.

The commercial launch of the service is expected during the summer.

The move comes after heavy pressure from Ofcom. The watchdog called on BT in March last year to open its underground ducts and overhead telegraph poles to rival operators to allow them to provide high-speed services to their own customers.

A few months later in October an official Ofcom ruling echoed the request.

The use of underground ducts and overhead telegraph poles is seen as a valuable means of improving superfast broadband penetration in areas which cannot be served by traditional fibre deployments.

Virgin Media has already stated its intention to use the infrastructure if the price is right, having trialled the use of telegraph poles to deliver 50Mbit/s broadband in rural areas.