BT to cut cost of Fibre-to-the-Premises broadband from June 2013

BT will cut the wholesale cost of its "ultra-fast" 330Mbit/s Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) by over a third. From June 2013, the service aimed at small to medium-sized businesses will drop from £60 a month to £38 a month.

That represents a 37 per cent reduction in the cost of line rental that BT Openreach charges rival communication providers (CPs) including Sky, Virgin Media and TalkTalk. The lower price will also apply to the Fibre-to-the-Premises on Demand (FoD) service BT is set to launch in spring 2013.

The new service will allow CPs to charge a one-off installation fee to businesses and consumers who want access to broadband speeds of up to 80Mbit/s. The cost will be around £1,500, depending on the distance from the premises to street connection "cabinets".

"It is now time for us to focus further on FTTP and I am pleased to say that we are making it more affordable than ever," said Mike Galvin, managing director for next generation access at Openreach.

"I am sure that small businesses will welcome this major price cut and I am also sure that our fibre on demand plans will be of great interest."

Last month saw BT bring forward its plans for fibre broadband, with the company saying two thirds of the UK will be covered by the service by spring 2014.

However, the firm has been criticised for lack of progress in some parts of the country, with businesses in Malvern, Worcestershire slamming delays to installation of a faster broadband service.