Ultra-fast broadband creates sales jamboree for resellers

DMSL, the distributor of broadband connectivity and hosted services, has reported a “huge” response from the channel to the availability of BT’s ultra-fast services, with broadband sales reaching “record heights” last month.

BT’s Openreach division has stated its ambition to deliver ultra-fast broadband speeds to 12 million premises by 2020, using a mixture of G.fast and Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) technology.

The details of BT’s ultra-fast vision for the UK have “spurred the channel into action” and resulted in a “significant uplift in activity”, according to John Carter, managing director of DMSL.

“There is no question that the SMB market is very excited and interested in BT’s ultra-fast services and that’s really boosted the level of enquiries coming into us and our partners. We achieved record sales of BT broadband last month and we will now be looking to build on that momentum,” Carter said.

Last month, Openreach announced the first eight areas in the country that will benefit from a new FTTP product specifically designed for SMBs, which will offer ultra-fast speeds of up to 1Gbps.

While this news has grabbed the headlines, it has also raised awareness of Openreach’s Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) technology, which delivers superfast services and is available to more than 25 million premises across the country, Carter said.

“The FTTC product is excellent and has helped deliver faster broadband speeds across the UK, with Ofcom saying that the UK’s broadband consistently outperforms other European countries on key measurements, such as availability, speed and, most importantly for resellers, take-up.

“We are seeing some very strong results and with the continued effort BT is putting into driving awareness of its plans for the roll-out of ultra-fast services, we’re expecting more records to be broken.”

Earlier this year, BT rival Virgin Media Business announced its entry into the indirect partner channel to target SMEs. For the first time, small business products including broadband bundles with speeds of up to 300Mbps, are now being offered by distribution partners.

DMSL and Daisy Distribution were named as the two main distribution partners for the programme. Virgin Media Business also intends to recruit 500 more partners by the end of the year.

“The indirect partner channel will improve the company’s capabilities to market to small businesses and will run in parallel with the existing desk-based sales team run out of its Manchester office,” said Virgin at the time of launch.

Virgin also announced in May the first ten UK areas to be supported by its new FTTP service.

@AntonySavvas