Posted: 14th Aug, 2003 By: MarkJ
Oftel has again updated its monthly broadband ADSL fact sheet, which charts the latest industry developments and statistics. Thankfully the errors from the July edition have not been replicated; we've summarised the most interesting information here.
The fact sheet states that, at the end of July, BT had managed to enable 1,507 exchanges, which equates to 71% coverage of UK households.
It's noted that, for technical reasons (line noise etc.), not all households can receive ADSL, thus reducing this to 67%.
ADSL
All of Kingstons exchanges in the Hull area are enabled to deliver ADSL.
Take up (as at end July):
BT: 1,170,000 (via BTs wholesale products)
Kingston: 10,000
LLU
At the end of July a total of 164 physical and 42 (figure amended after consultation with BT) distant location facilities had been completed.
LLU services are now widely available and over 6400 loops have been connected.
Developments
Launch of ADSL Exchange Activate: BT Wholesale launched its ADSL Exchange Activate service on the 21 July 2003. ADSL Exchange Activate is designed to deliver ADSL from small exchanges where it may not otherwise be commercially viable. The service enables Service Providers to provide high speed internet access to a fixed number of end users (up to 30 per block).
BT IPStream Developments: BT Wholesale is developing IPStream 1000, to enable service providers to provide a 1Mbit/s consumer product through the IPStream portfolio. A market trial is planned for August. BT Wholesale has suspended plans to launch IPStream 250, a 256kbit/s service as demand forecasts were low.
Demand triggers set at a further 500 exchanges: BT confirmed the level of demand needed to enable a further 500 exchanges through its customer registration scheme. 56 exchanges will automatically go into the upgrade programme as local people had already registered sufficient interest to meet the newly set demand trigger levels.