Easynet squares up to BT with wholesale broadband
By Tim Richardson
Published Monday 13th December 2004 15:33 GMT

Easynet is to go head-to-head with BT by providing wholesale broadband
to telcos and ISPs at prices it claims are 30-35 per cent cheaper than
its rival's.

Using its own kit installed in BT exchanges, Easynet is offering
operators the chance to provide unbundled services direct to end users
via its new LLUStream product.

Although the operator is looking to provide business-oriented
broadband services, it is also in discussions with consumer ISPs,
although the company declined to name any of those involved in
negotiations.

So far, however, the local loop unbundling (LLU) operator has
unbundled 240 of BT's local exchanges covering 700,000 businesses and
some 4.4m homes.

Said David Rowe, CEO of Easynet, in a stock exchange announcement:
"The market is at an inflection point with the imminent launch of new
services across the copper network. This makes it the right time to
open our network to other providers in competition with BT's
[wholesale] IPStream and DataStream products.

"We are able to offer differentiated services, significant cost
reductions and speeds of up to 8Mbps, rising to 18Mpbs when ADSL2+
becomes available following regulatory action. This is a great example
of recent regulatory changes enabling genuine competition at the
infrastructure level.

"The ultimate winners are consumers and businesses. They will get
lower prices, faster speeds, better quality and access to the next
generation of broadband services," he said. ®