In advance of full-fibre broadband arriving at your home or business in one of our Giganet Local areas (Salisbury, Basingstoke or Winchester), you may have come across a similarly named UltraBEAM product if you ran a business-availability check, that shows you can get it today – UltraBEAM+ (PLUS).
The + PLUS is the important distinguisher.
You may be wondering whether this means that FTTP full-fibre has arrived at your premises or not. This article aims to answer this question and explain the key differences.
What is UltraBEAM+ (PLUS)
UltraBEAM+ (PLUS) is what you may call a hybrid-leased line service.
It’s exclusive to Giganet and not available from any other provider.
It’s only available in our Giganet Local exchange areas, including Basingstoke, Salisbury and Winchester.
We have effectively engineered a new type of broadband service that leverages the fibre Ethernet (leased line) product from Openreach that is typically used to deliver dedicated & uncontended leased lines, but we’ve architected the technical characteristics of our backhaul and core network to create a lower-cost and lightly contended broadband service.
UltraBEAM+ comes in one variety: 500Mb/s down, 500Mb/s up, costs a fraction of what a 500Mb/s leased line would be, and is available today at any premises directly attached to the Basingstoke, Salisbury or Winchester exchanges. If you run a business-availability check, you can find out in less than 1 minute whether you can receive UltraBEAM+.
The UltraBEAM+ service is fundamentally business-grade; and we provide a 24x7x365 6hr fix SLA.
Isn’t UltraBEAM+ just FTTPoD (FTTP on Demand)/ UltraBEAM on Demand?
No.
Fibre to the Premise on Demand, or FTTPoD, is a vastly more bespoke and complicated service to provision. In fact, Openreach the provider of the underlying fibre service have put a very low limit of the number of orders they can accept nationally due to the complexity.
FTTPoD is based on the same network and technology powering the UltraBEAM (non PLUS) services. I.e. this is GPON and not point to point 1:1 fibre like our UltraBEAM+ service.
There are likely to be very high installation costs for FTTPoD too, considerably more than UltraBEAM+. However if you do happen to get an FTTPoD service installed, then our standard UltraBEAM service plans and rates apply which can be much less than our UltraBEAM+ charges. But the services are not like with like.
Differences between UltraBEAM+ (PLUS), UltraBEAM and UltraBEAM on Demand
| UltraBEAM+ (PLUS) | UltraBEAM | UltraBEAM on Demand | |
| Availability | Available today at:
|
|
National subject to demand |
| Coverage | Any premises connected directly to the Basingstoke, Salisbury or Winchester exchanges | Where Openreach have installed the full-fibre FTTP service. | Demand-led |
| Customer type | SME businesses-only | Homes and Businesses | Homes and Businesses |
| Typical installation pricing | FREE set up on 36m term or with a Gigabit voucher2 | Homes – £55 inc VAT Businesses – £99 ex VAT or £0 on 36m term |
£500 – £50,000+VAT or more, subject to survey. |
| Monthly pricing starts from | £249+VAT/month with Gigabit voucher1 (36m term) £299+VAT/month without a voucher (36m term) |
Homes – 150Mb/s from £50/month Businesses – 150Mb/s from £69+VAT/month |
Homes – 150Mb/s from £50/month Businesses – 150Mb/s from £69+VAT/month |
| Speed options (download/upload in Mb/s) | 500/500 | 80/20, 150/30, 300/50
500/150, 930/200 – Giganet Local areas only |
80/20, 150/30, 300/50
500/150, 930/200 – Giganet Local areas only |
| Min speed guarantee SLA (Mb/s) | 62.5/62.5 | N/A for residential services | N/A for residential services |
| Contract duration | 12m or 36m (set up fee applies to 12m term) |
12m, 24m or 36m (Free install on 36m term for businesses2) |
12m, 24m or 36m |
| Ability to switch to UltraBEAM or a different speed tier mid-term | No | Yes | Yes |
| Key benefits | Available ‘today’ if your premises links directly to our Giganet Local exchanges. Symmetric download/upload speeds. Soft-remote upgrade to leased line mid-term. 1:1 point-to-point active-fibre to exchange. £2,800 installation subsidy if any ECCs apply. |
Lower cost Gigabit capable FTTP broadband. Variety of different speed options. Faster lead time where available. |
Access to the variety of UltraBEAM services and lower monthly rentals. |
| Typical lead time | 65 working days. If survey identifies easy instal, likely to be 35 working days. |
10 working days | 90 – 120 or more working days |
| Service level | 24x7x365 6hr fix | Homes – fix by 23.59 next day Mon-Sat. Business – 24x7x365 6hr fix. |
Homes – fix by 23.59 next day Mon-Sat. Business – 24x7x365 6hr fix. |
| Type of fibre to premises | Active fibre, 1:1 point-to-point fibre from premises to Giganet’s exchange. | GPON, up to 32:1 split. | GPON, up to 32:1 split. |
1Giganet voucher eligibility terms apply.
2Subject to survey. In some cases, excess construction charges (ECCs) will be applicable if your premises is far away from nearby fibre infrastructure. If this is the case, then you can cancel without penalty if you do not wish to proceed. We may also be able to use the Gigabit voucher1 to (part) fund the ECCs.
