ISP Review - NDO Interview

ISP Review interviews UK ISP NDO

NDO Interview
By Mark 'Winter' Jackson : Feb 1st-2005 : Page 3 of 3

"current pricing levels of broadband are approaching what is as cheap as it can get"


8) Many fear that the growing use of bandwidth limits will make broadband technology more restrictive, especially at a time when higher definition content, online music and movie downloads growth demand the opposite. What’s your ISP’s position on this?

The truth of the matter is Bandwidth costs money, for every megabyte of data downloaded by a user the ISP will have had to have paid transit fees somewhere to have received the data. These transit fees go towards the cost of maintaining the fibre-networks that hold the Internet together and the cost of the routers and switches needed to make it all work.

As more and more demands are made for bandwidth then the fibre-networks capacity needs to be increased, requiring more powerful routers and this all costs money. At current rates of bandwidth usage growth it is unlikely that the exceptionally cheap unlimited-bandwidth services will remain; caps will become more common place and unlimited bandwidth services prices will need to continue to reflect the true cost of the bandwidth used.

9) Can we expect broadband to get even cheaper, or do you feel that the correct pricing level has already been achieved for what is currently offered?

The current pricing levels of broadband are approaching what is as cheap as it can get for Broadband. The only way prices can really drop is by imposing strict usage limits onto the Broadband products, as at the end of the day every byte of data a user downloads has to be paid for in terms of transit in some way unless ISPs start to sell below cost (not exactly a sensible idea for a business to do) then the costs of broadband cannot easily shift.

10) Is Local Loop Unbundling something your provider has considered, already invested in or would consider in the future and why?

Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) is not something NDO have currently invested in due to the generally high costs and risks of demand required to undertake LLU. In most Metropolitan areas end-users can already choose between LLU circuits from Easynet and Bulldog competing with ADSL from BT Wholesale and normally leased-line technologies from people like Colt. Therefore, as this is already a highly competitive and saturated marketplace and therefore is one NDO doesn’t wish to compete in – we would rather focus on ensuring our current ADSL and SDSL offerings are stable. Additionally, given that these LLU services are normally only aimed at businesses most of whom in our experience find an ADSL or SDSL based connection ideal for their needs.

11) Finally, what do you perceive as being the most important developments for your ISP in the coming year (2005)?

Variable speed broadband services allowing you to control the flow of your ADSL connection as your needs demand and VoIP services will be the main developments for 2005; along with a push for more interactive and content driven online services making use of the ever increasing bandwidth to end users.

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ISP Review sends our thanks NDO's Sam Hill for taking time out to answer the questions.

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