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ISP Review investigates BTs new BT 'No Frills' Broadband ADSL product |
 The ultimate reasoning behind its introduction appears to be that of offering a cheaper than full ISP ADSL service, only there's a strange twist, it's not even close. In fact BTB costs £27/£28 per month (not including hardware costs), which is far in excess of most FULL ISP services. Indeed BT themselves now appear to be slapping other ISPs in the face via the media and trying to promote BTB as cheaper than the competition, which it quite clearly isn't. One good example of this comes from a ZDNet item: http://www.ispreview.co.uk/cgi-bin/ispnews/viewnews.cgi?newsid1024130699,54292, The obvious question is why? It's something that only starts to make sense when you begin to consider BTs massive hold on the market. The 'WHY' Factor So why? Why offer BTB if BT already knows of the full and cheaper ISP services available? Simple, market dominance. Anybody who considers subscribing to an ADSL service must already have a BT line, which obviously gives the operator a major in-road into the market. In other words and excluding the tiny number of LLU (Local Loop Unbundled) ADSL providers, BT has access to a COMPLETE database of those able to use ADSL. To date they've not tried to abuse this with direct advertising, although ISPs are concerned that it could only be a matter of time, there's certainly nothing to stop it. BT is also trying to distance itself from ISPs by claiming that BTB is only about access and using the excuse that ISPs can compete on content. The Ex-CEO of now closed ISP Cloud-Nine has something to say about that, "The fact is they are trying to redefine the concept of an ISP and that is bad news for the whole sector. This is an anti-competitive act pure and simple - however they try to window dress it. The condescending remark - "ISP's can just improve the content they provide" says it all. Excuse me, ISP's are not just about content - they are also about access!!" Some ISPs and experts are also worried that this attempt to re-define what an ISP is could damage the industry and confuse customers for the commercial gain of BT. The ISP Vispa Internet was only too happy to add that, "If this is going to do one thing...it's going to confuse the public even more, cost companies like Vispa more in marketing to explain the difference between Wires Only...which still is taking some sinking in to the market place....and direct access."
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