One irony with the Openreach FTTP roll-out to date has been the need to
retain a copper telephone line for voice services. With the launch of Fibre Voice Access,
those areas where Openreach Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) is available now have
the option of connecting two lines to the Optical Network Termination (ONT –
the white fibre termination unit). No special phone is required, a standard
analogue handset will suffice and the call quality over the Openreach segment
matches the existing PSTN standards.
Click image for hi-res picture of Openreach ONT
The Openreach factsheet provides some more information for
those curious how it will all fit together, and lets us know that a battery
back-up solution is being developed to meet power outage requirements. For the
first few months of the roll-out an introductory means that the FVA-FTTP will
be provided with free connection and no rental charges between 1st March 2012
and 30th June 2012.
The pricing that will apply at the end of the introductory
offer is shown below. It will be possible to order the Fibre Voice Access
product without a broadband service. As a standalone product it costs £183.48
per year, but when ordered with a broadband service this drops to £103.68.
| Product | Connection | Annual Rental | Monthly Rental |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fibre Voice Access | £80 | £183.48 | £15.29 |
| Generic Ethernet Access up to 40Mbit/s/2Mbit/s | £80 | £82.80 | £6.90 |
| Fibre Voice Access and Generic Ethernet Access up to 40Mbit/s/2Mbit/s | £105 | £186.48 | £15.54 |
| Generic Ethernet Access up to 40Mbit/s/10Mbit/s | £80 | £88.80 | £7.40 |
| Fibre Voice Access and Generic Ethernet Access up to 40Mbit/s/10Mbit/s | £105 | £192.48 | £16.04 |
| Generic Ethernet Access up to 40Mbit/s/15Mbit/s | £80 | £119.40 | £9.95 |
| Fibre Voice Access and Generic Ethernet Access up to 40Mbit/s/15Mbit/s | £105 | £223.80 | £18.65 |
| Generic Ethernet Access up to 100Mbit/s/15Mbit/s | £80 | £154.80 | £12.90 |
| Fibre Voice Access and Generic Ethernet Access up to 100Mbit/s/15Mbit/s |
£105 | £258.48 | £21.54 |
| Generic Ethernet Access up to 110Mbit/s/15Mbit/s | £80 | £157.80 | £13.15 |
| Fibre Voice Access and Generic Ethernet Access up to 110Mbit/s/15Mbit/s |
£105 | £261.48 | £21.79 |
| Generic Ethernet Access up to 110Mbit/s/30Mbit/s | £80 | £436.32 | £36.36 |
| Fibre Voice Access and Generic Ethernet Access up to 110Mbit/s/15Mbit/s |
£105 | £540.00 | £45 |
£103.68+VAT is not cheap for a phone line even when combined with broadband,
particularly as old fashioned copper line rental pricing at the retail level
can be found for around £96 a year including VAT. Plus the Openreach pricing
excludes the operators costs in providing the SIP server. If both lines that
the ONT support are included in the £103.68, then pricing is more reasonable,
and exploits the ability of fibre to deliver multiple services without
impacting on the broadband service.
For those where FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) is available, Fibre Voice Access
is not available at this time. There are indications from Openreach that at
some future date FVA access may be available to FTTC customers.
Test your broadband speed
Follow us on X for the latest broadband news 
First comment yeeehaaaaaa!!!!!
So what advantages are there with this service as opposed to sip/voip?
Guaranteed quality of service I would imagine, with your own voip service your packets won’t be guaranteed end to end
Andrew, The £103.68+ Vat is exactly what Openreach sell a WLR line for today. Any Retail price below this using BT network is sold as a loss leader.
This looks like an attempt to keep voice the same on old and new platform.
2nd line appears to be another £103.68 (special offer price?) which seems expensive
Also typing error in last line should be 110/30
That makes sense. It would be a footgun moment if they announced that voice-over-fibre was a more expensive, exclusive, commodity, and next day announced that fibre-on-demand was now a reality for the masses.
50p a month from 2mbit to 10mbit upload, sky and plusnet been tight.
So does this mean that it’s going to be possible to have a broadband service without any sort of existing phone line (either an existing copper line or new voice line over fibre)?
you can have broadband only on BT Greenfield FTTP already, this makes it more widely available if you can get brownfield / overlay FTTP and mirrors the situation with Virgin Cable.