BT has laid out plans to boost rural broadband and offer speeds up to 1Gbit/sec as it tries to persuade Ofcom not to spin out its infrastructure arm, Openreach.
The telecoms company made four pledges as part of a plan to "deliver Britain's digital future": a universal minimum broadband speed of between 5Mbits/sec to 10Mbits/sec; extending fibre beyond the government's 95 per cent coverage goal; rolling out "ultrafast" connections of 300Mbits/sec to 500Mbits/sec to 10 million homes by 2020; and improving service.
BT has faced pressure from rivals and industry organisations to spin off Openreach, the arm that runs its infrastructure, including fibre roll outs. Rivals can buy connectivity access, but have complained about prices and customer service. Regulator Ofcom is currently considering the issue as part of a wider review.
BT Group chief executive Gavin Patterson said the infrastructure investment pledges were "not a threat" of what the UK would miss out on if Openreach were broken up, but a showcase of "what BT Group with a functionally separate Openreach" can provide. He added: "This is what you can get from us, this is the vision that we have for the future, this is what we can offer... if you give us some stability and regulatory certainty for the next ten years."
He added that he wasn't surprised by the "aggressive positions" taken by some of its rivals, but said BT was having a "much more sensible" debate with Ofcom.
More government funding?
Some of BT's pledged goals are dependent on Ofcom and the government, the company noted. For example, improving the universal service commitment from its current 2Mbits/sec will need to be at least part funded by government, although BT is willing to invest too.
"It's a range of five to ten [Mbits/sec] because I think the debate is still ongoing what the right number is," Patterson said, noting that the government has previously suggested the lower number but Ofcom believes the higher number is necessary to make full use of the web.
"The reason we need certainty for that, and need a regulatory framework, is for a couple of reasons," he said in response to an IT Pro question. "One, it's going to require some investment and could be quite a considerable investment depending on what the eventual number is. We stand here very ready to shoulder some of that responsibility, but it would be difficult to shoulder it completely ... and secondly, in terms of some of the technology solutions that are available ... some of them are going to need some regulatory support, in terms of how we manage frequencies, for example."
Fibre ambitions
Patterson said BT had passed 23 million homes with fibre, though much of it is fiber to the cabinet (FttC) rather than fibre to the premise (FttP), as part of a government goal to cover 95 per cent of Britain with superfast connections.
"Of course, that achievement doesn't feel so huge if you're in the final 5 per cent," noted Patterson.
Hence the aim to extend fibre beyond the 95 per cent goal set by the government. That was part-funded by its Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) project, and further work is also dependent on more investment - although that doesn't necessarily mean more public money will be required.
As part of the BDUK work, BT promised to hand back some public funds if takeup of fibre services topped 20 per cent, which it has. So far, the ISP has repaid 130 million, and hopes some of that money could go to improving coverage for the final 5 per cent.
Patterson also noted that "if there were to be further funding, we do not assume it would all go to BT". All of the BDUK funding went to BT after Fujitsu pulled out of the project.
Bringing faster connections to areas stuck on slow-spots or not-spots - whether it's to reach a 5Mbit/sec bottom line or to offer fibre - will also mean working more closely with communities. BT has in the past been criticised for not being open enough to community broadband projects, but now it promises to "never say no".
BT pointed to 90 community projects it's already worked with, saying it helped the small town of Preston in Hertfordshire leap from 1Mbit/sec to 55Mbits/sec after the 130 families raised the funds to pay for the work. "It is our desire to never say no," said Openreach CEO Joe Garner.
BT is also promising to continue improving its existing fibre networks, using a mix of FttP and new technologies to boost speeds on offer from 300Mbits/sec to 500Mbits/sec at 10 million premises within five years. No public funding will be required for that work.
If that's not speedy enough for you, BT will also offer 1Gbit/sec to those who want it, if possible. The company also pledged to make sure every new build development has fibre installed from the start.
Customer service
Coverage and speed aside, Openreach has long been criticised over customer service issues. Garner took over the infrastructure arm 18 months ago with a promise to improve service, and has rolled out a software system to track engineers and started to bring customer service call centres back to the UK. Plus, it's hired an additional 3,000 engineers in the past year or so, Garner said.
By 2017, Openreach plans to have 95 per cent of its engineers arrive at call outs on time. Garner pointed out it's impossible to hit 100 per cent as external factors "outside of our control" can intervene, including people not being home at the allotted time.
BT is also consulting formally with regulators and the communications providers that work with Openreach to decide if end customers should be able to directly contact the infrastructure arm, rather than go through the ISP they buy services from. Garner said he was "open-minded" on the suggestion.
New technologies
"There will be no capacity crunch in the next decade," said Clive Selley, head of innovation at BT Group, promising BT was future proofing its infrastructure so core networks can "evolve gracefully".
That's partially thanks to new technologies including G.fast, which squeezes more speed out of short lengths of copper; trials of 4,000 customers show speeds reaching the same in the real world as those reached in labs, which have topped 500Mbits/sec and has the potential for even faster. Selley called it the "most exciting breakthrough from the lab in recent years," noting it was not only economical but could be rolled out quickly.
He also pointed to Long Reach VDSL, another copper technology that BT's tests showed boosting speeds on a 2km line from 9Mbits/sec to 24Mbits/sec, and new techniques to power networking equipment over copper cables, which is helpful in remote rural areas.
