Communications giant British Telecom is set to offer three hundred households in Kent broadband discounts – for trialling its fastest ever connection!
Three hundred lucky households in the Kent area are set to be offered a discount by communications provider British Telecom. And what will they be doing to receive this discount? Trialling BT’s fastest ever connection, which could give them speeds of up to 100Mbps! The new connection is for its fibre to home technology, with BT using Ebbsfleet to test out this new technology, which could provide short bursts of high speed access of up to 100Mbps.
BT officials have asked Ofcom to waive its Universal Service Conditions, which state that the provider must normally provide services at set prices across the country. It is looking for hundreds of homes in which to test the new connection, which means that hundreds of user may be able to enjoy higher speeds as well as discounts from British Telecom.
In the meantime Ofcom has asked interested stakeholders to give their view on the situation, although it appears to be prepared to give BT the go ahead following thee views. The Ofcom proposal stated: “Ofcom wishes to encourage deployment of NGA (next generation access) networks and therefore proposes to consent to BT’s request in order to facilitate the Ebbsfleet FTTP (fibre-to-the-premises) pilot.”

It also stated: “We think that allowing BT to discount telephony connection and line rental charges for the Ebbsfleet FTTP Pilot would not undermine the overall effectiveness of the USCs because the consent would be restricted to 300 homes for a limited period only. Also BT would not be permitted to charge above its standard rates for the Ebbsfleet FTTP Pilot and the requirement for uniform pricing would continue to apply elsewhere in the UK.”