From From
http://www.btplc.com/News/Articles/S...6eb7528-dec8-4
72f-a061-fc6bf6060863
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BT Wholesale today announced plans to deliver higher speed broadband
services throughout the UK together with a range of wholesale
broadband pricing initiatives. The changes include more competitive
wholesale broadband pricing in response to service provider requests
to support the continued explosion of end user take up of broadband
connections.
These customer focussed plans help develop the competitive environment
for the industry envisaged in today's BT response to the Ofcom
Telecommunications Strategic Review (see News Release DC05 - 057).
BT plans to deliver higher speeds from its wholesale ADSL products to
meet increasing demand for more bandwidth-hungry applications such as
video. Trials are scheduled to begin in April 2005 with a view to
launching higher speed services nationally from the autumn.
Firstly the company plans to trial upping the speeds on lines that
will currently support existing 2Mbit/s ADSL services to deliver
speeds between 2Mbit/s and 8Mbit/s dependant on line characteristics.
In addition BT Wholesale plans to run initial trials of ADSL2+
technology to support higher speed services of up to 18Mbit/s.
Further details of the timing, scope and location of the trials will
be provided over the next few weeks.
From April 2005, BT Wholesale plans to reduce the wholesale cost to
service providers of BT IPStream ADSL products by an average of about
8 per cent in areas where there is a combination of high customer
demand, high take up and lower costs. The reduction will be delivered
as a rebate to the service provider of £1.10 per BT IPstream Home end
user and £1.40 per BT IPstream Office and S product end user.
The company announced it will also reduce the costs for BT Datastream
ADSL service providers at the same time to ensure continued compliance
with the regulatory margin rule. Given current market and regulatory
conditions, BT said it does not expect to make any further significant
price changes to the existing ADSL IP Stream rental charges over the
next 12 months, other than potentially some changes to support the
take up of higher bandwidth services.
BT Wholesale has also announced it plans further price cuts for Local
Loop Unbundling operators. BT would hope to cut the monthly rental on
the fully unbundled local loop product by a similar proportion to the
BT IPstream reduction. This will be subject to the speedy and
satisfactory conclusion of two related Ofcom consultations and the
wider review as well as following normal regulatory processes.
BT Wholesale chief executive Paul Reynolds said: "At more than four
million ADSL broadband connections and growing, and close to two
million cable broadband users, broadband in the UK is rapidly becoming
a mass market service. Broadband service providers want a choice of
broadband service delivery and the ability to differentiate their
services to end users. The broadband volumes we see today allow us to
address both issues of cost and choice, and will help maintain a
sustainable, competitive broadband portfolio.
"Ultimately our 21st century network programme will deliver the speed
and functionality service providers want for the future. Today's news
means we are bringing improvements on-stream more quickly to give
wholesale customers the choice of the wholesale delivery mechanism
they adopt for broadband; be it the end-to-end BT IPstream option; end
user access via BT Datastream; or by local loop unbundling.
"We are fully committed to seeing LLU a success. Industry interest has
grown significantly since BT delivered price reductions of up to 70
per cent on shared LLU over recent months. We've also recently
introduced a range of new products that allow simpler migration
between operators and a further range of other industry requested
products and automations will be launched progressively in the coming
months. We are committed to continuing our work with the industry to
improve the operational processes surrounding LLU".
By the end of March 2005 LLU operators will be providing service from
more than 600 exchanges with many of them having multiple operators
providing service. New LLU deployments, in many cases, will be the
simpler, cheaper new range of co-mingling products launched in October
2004. BT has agreed an LLU Industry Plan that will provide a
platform for operators to grow towards their forecasts of 1million
total LLU lines by December 2005.
Paul Reynolds said: "In a highly competitive market all service
providers need competitive input prices and flexibility to
differentiate their products. These developments strengthen the
broadband portfolio for all wholesale customers – including local loop
unbundlers and service providers who do not wish to become
infrastructure operators."
Earlier this week BT revealed details of the next 500 exchanges to be
upgraded to provide symmetric broadband (SDSL) service. By April 2006
a total of 1300 exchanges covering more than two thirds of UK
businesses will be able to provide SDSL.
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Regards
Sunil
gtMd.6412