Broadband provider BE has promised to launch an ‘unlimited and unshaped’ hybrid fibre service as soon as possible.
Following a fibre-to-the-cabinet trial, BE is waiting for its owner, O2, to approve its plans for an up-to-40Mbps service.
BE is also moving its existing ADSL customers onto a new core network over the next 18 months on a rolling, exchange-by-exchange basis.
Chris Stenning, BE’s managing director, told users on the BE forum: “I’d love to have a fibre service launched now – in fact I’d like to have had one available a year ago as I know we have great demand.
“We will definitely use a BT Openreach service where we have our own LLU network and possibly a BT Wholesale one where we don’t – but only if we can be sure the service is up to our standards and at a sensible price point, e.g. unlimited and unshaped like all other BE services. It will initially be FTTC but FTTP is not ruled out.
“We’ve made the case to spend the money on the network and associated IT and it is currently awaiting approval with our parent company as it is not an small amount of money.”
Stenning added that he expects the fibre service to carry a “a reasonable but not excessive premium” over the cost of its Pro broadband service.
The switch to BE’s core network will improve its bandwidth, reduce latency, support new features like IPv6 and change the way it operates static IP addresses.
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