ISPreview and Vispa put Questions to BT about ADSL

• BT said that was incorrect, they had just taken 3 years to roll out a technology. They also mentioned that they are still ironing out technical problems in the US due to introducing xDSL too quickly to the public.

7) What about those living in areas such as Poole/Bournemouth in Dorset, when are rural communities (even those living near to larger towns) going to see ADSL?

• BT said they are ahead of rollout plans by a few months, that 75% of the country would have ADSL within 18 months. [ISPr Comment: Like we said, over a year away =)].

8) How does BT feel about the recent price drop in Cable Modems as the viewpoint of a competitor with ADSL?

• No comment.

Vispa's Comment on the meeting:
"All in all it was a productive meeting. They clearly did not hide anything from us, and said services are being improved all the time. For instance BT's own R&D department have combined both the ADSL modem and Splitter into one unit, when before it was 2 from suppliers that BT was going to use. This has cut the cost of installing ADSL. We were assured that Vispa's contention was remaining at 20:1 for business solutions and 50:1 for home. 80:1 would seem to BTOpenWorld's settings, which BT was supplying to them in same manner as us.

Talking of Home users. I can tell you we had it confirmed today that we can start turning on USB versions from August 29th, and that Vispa was just 1 of 4 that would be doing that on that date. I guess it helps to have a good relationship with BT...;-)"

Some questions didn't get answered and many of the answers were still a little vague, either way we come off knowing a little more than we did before. It's interesting to note that the 80:1 contention ration applies to BT's own Openworld hybrid ADSL service only, why kick themselves in the foot like that? However as suspected, many of us will be forced to wait up to two more years before broadband is accessible.

Personal hopes are that BT will bring down the price of ISDN during this time to make the wait more bearable, although it's a pity nobody came up with that question to ask at the time =(.

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