Green light for 300 free FTTH phone connections at Ebbsfleet
OFCOM has given consent for BT to offer free / discounted phone services to up to 300 homes on the Ebbsfleet development. These will be provided using optical fibre to the home (FTTH) and the consumer will have an adaptor to connect normal telephones to the IP based fibre connection.
This permission is a technicality to allow price discounting of a product that has a Universal Service Obligation (USO) stating that a standard telephony service should be available throughout the UK at a uniform price.
The same fibre will also carry broadband services and Openreach have indicated a much larger (10,000) number of free or discounted broadband connections will be available to promote rapid uptake of the pilot project. Broadband is not covered by a USO or by price regulation so this aspect does not require OFCOM to grant permission.
Tags: OFCOM
