The cost of backhaul had become very significant in recent years as operators had to cope with ever increasing bandwidth demands from users keen to use the latest 3G multi-media applications and use their mobile for surfing the web.
Since the 3G licence auctions service providers have been looking to applications as a means of recouping their huge investments and now, with these price reductions, BT Openreach has at a stroke removed the price barriers to more applications being developed and deployed.
Effective immediately for new and existing connection orders, and from the 1st February 2009 for rentals, the price reductions will encompass most of Openreach’s WES, WEES and BES products. Changes include:
BES 1Gb product connection reduced by up to 62% and rental by up to 31%.
WES/WEES 100Mb Local Access reduced to the same price as 10Mb Local Access for both connection and rental, representing a reduction of up to 43% for connection and up to 14% for rental.
BES 100Mb reduced to the same price as BES 10Mb for connection and rental, representing a reduction of up to 65% for connection and up to 26% for rental.
Openreach say they strongly believes that these price reductions will play a key part in enabling the communications industry to meet the demands for higher bandwidth from end users in the fixed and mobile broadband markets, as well as business connectivity.
The cost of network infrastructure in providing backhaul is frequently cited as a key barrier to enabling true high speed broadband in the UK, and enabling delivery of backhaul bandwidth-intensive services such as iPlayer and YouTube. These price changes are a key step in delivering network cost savings to Communications Providers who in turn can choose how they pass on the bandwidth benefits to their end users.
Steve Robertson, CEO of Openreach said: “For our key Broadband suppliers this means the opportunity to buy super-fast gigabit capacity at drastically reduced prices and the chance to enhance their own network capacity with minimal incremental investment. In addition Communication Providers will soon be able to purchase ten times the capacity they buy today for more or less the same price, allowing business customers to massively improve their connectivity at a fraction of the cost, and providing a boost for UK competitiveness in an uncertain economic climate.”
Steve continued “Openreach firmly believes in the benefits of a competitive market for Ethernet services, and we feel confident that these price reductions represent great news for Communications Providers.”
These significant price changes across Openreach’s Ethernet portfolio will not only deliver real cost savings to existing users, but will open up the portfolio to customers who may not have considered Ethernet as an affordable technology in the past.