Free fibre speed upgrades and price cuts from Openserve

Openserve has made major changes to its wholesale offerings, offering significant speed upgrades at no additional charge to customers.

In a mail sent to ISPs seen by MyBroadband, the network operator announced that it would be implementing connection speed upgrades across its fibre and copper products.

“Our continued quest to provide you with world-class broadband services that not only meet but exceed customer demands, guided by international and local market best practices, has culminated in the latest enhancements to our Broadband portfolio,” Openserve told customers.

The company said the following changes would be implemented for its respective wholesale broadband products:

• Openserve Fibre Connect (OFC) – Speed upgrades and price cuts, effective from 1 March 2021.
• Openserve Copper Connect (OCC / ADSL) – Speed upgrades and price cuts, effective from 1 March 2021.
• Openserve Pure Connect (OPC / Naked ADSL) – Price cuts effective from 1 April 2021.

A number of low-speed Openserve connections are being phased out of its product portfolio, and retail customers with these connections will be upgraded to the new minimum product.

Additionally, Openserve has also stated that a number of products will see their speeds at doubled with no increase to price.

“Once the product migration has been completed, the Network Migration to support the product changes will commence,” Openserve said.

“This Network Migration will take place in a phased approach and the associated timelines will be communicated shortly.”

It is important to note that these changes are being effected at a wholesale level, which means they may not translate to direct changes for retail customers.

Additionally, the rental amounts quoted in Openserve’s communication exclude VAT and do not reflect the full cost to ISPs of enabling these wholesale connections for retail customers. They, therefore, cannot be compared with the final, VAT-inclusive retail cost of fibre or ADSL connections.

Openserve said it could not comment on leaked communications to ISPs, but a number of local ISPs confirmed they had received the changes and were in the process of reviewing them.

Vox head of fibre and data, Mary Ogilvy told MyBroadband that the costs outlined by Openserve only refer to line rental and not IPC charges, and the changes implemented by the company mean ISPs will be paying more, not less.

“The Openserve change will cost ISPs more money rather than less (our IPC consumption will go up) and I will be surprised if ISP’s drop their pricing,” Ogilvy said.

“The main benefit to the customer will be that their line speed will be doubled, as Openserve is doing a mass migration on their base.”

Below are the full changes being implemented by Openserve across its product portfolio, according to the communication seen by MyBroadband.

With regards to the copper broadband upgrades, Openserve noted that some upgraded services may not be able to attain the new speeds, and will instead be stabilised to the highest speed attainable.

Openserve Fibre Connect

• Existing 10Mbps services will be upgraded to 25Mbps whilst remaining at the 10Mbps price.
• Existing 20Mbps services will be upgraded to 50Mbps whilst remaining at the 20Mbps price.
• Existing 50Mbps services will be upgraded to 100Mbps whilst remaining at the 50Mbps price.
• Existing 100Mbps services will be upgraded to 200Mbps whilst remaining at the 100Mbps price.
• The existing 200Mbps services remain at the same speed but at the reduced 100Mbps price.
• The 10Mbps and 20Mbps offer will then cease to exist and will no longer be available to order.
• The new entry-level OFC product will now be 25Mbps symmetrical.

Connection speed rental price changes are summarised below:

Openserve Copper Connect

• Existing OCC 1Mbps and 2Mbps services will be upgraded to OCC 5Mbps at the current 2Mbps price.
• Existing OCC 5Mbps and 8Mbps services will be upgraded to 10Mbps at the current 5Mbps price.
• Existing OCC 10Mbps services will be upgraded to 20Mbps whilst remaining at the current 10Mbps price.
• Existing OCC 20Mbps services will be upgraded to 40Mbps whilst remaining at the current 20Mbps price.
• The existing 40Mbps services remain at the same speed but at the reduced 20Mbps price.
• The OCC 1,2, and 8Mbps offers will cease to exist and no longer be available to order.

Connection speed rental price changes are summarised below:

Openserve Pure Connect

The wholesale pricing for Openserve Pure Connect, or Naked ADSL, has been reduced as follows:

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Sourced from: My Broadband. View the original article here.