Posted: 25th Jan, 2005 By: MarkJ
Speaking out against Ofcom's Telecoms Review, BT has warned that a more competitive market would lead to over 50% of UK homes and businesses being without advanced broadband services:
Interviewed in The Sunday Times, Verwaayen [BT] argues that the regulator's preference for local loop unbundling (LLU) will lead to a new digital divide with rival telcos cherry-picking the most lucrative exchanges.
As a result, highly populated urban exchanges are likely to see investment from rivals. The same cannot be said for the vast majority of exchanges, though. Verwaayen estimates that all but 600 exchanges are uneconomic for LLU.
He told The Sunday Times: "What if your business is in Swansea or Southampton? We need to make sure that telecoms are available wherever business is located."BT obviously isn't too keen on the idea of having to adjust its services to "compete" with rivals, although many in the industry fear that Ofcom will ultimately be too weak and fail to impose the proposed changes.
Its worth remembering that the Trade and Industry Select Committee (TISC) [government] is also monitoring the regulators progress, which just happens to be occurring near a general election. More @
The Register.