ISP Review - Year in Review 2006
Article

Year in Review 2006
By: Mark Jackson - December 7th 2006 : Page 2 -of- 6
"Going forward BT has announced further price reductions to its own wholesale broadband solutions (Estimated ETA – May 2007)"

2006 has seen the pace of unbundling take-off, going from 250,000 lines unhooked in January to over 1,000,000 by November. Come May 2007 it’s expected that the UK will play host to no less than 1,500,000 unbundled lines. Typically getting involved in this aspect of the market doesn’t come without cost and requires a great deal of initial investment.

The race to gain a slice of this new segment is also believed to be one of the biggest factors behind the past years aggressive market consolidation. From the largest to the smallest providers, hardly any ISP has managed to remain untouched as rivals struggle for a bigger piece of the same pie. Most recently The Carphone Warehouse (TalkTalk) purchased AOL UK’s broadband subscriber base, which is crucial given Carphone’s strong role in LLU deployment.

Meanwhile BT has been straggling behind, much as they always do when having to consider the wider implications for a truly national product, a fact others are not so restricted by. Thankfully we can expect the operator to begin introducing its own ADSL2+ technology from mid-2007, although few ever achieve the top speed of 24Mbps. In reality most will experience a boost of anything from a few Kilobits per second (Kbps) to 1 or 2 Megabits per second (Mbps).

Bundled Packages & Price Cuts

Competitive pricing has continued to be a staple part of the markets evolutionary diet throughout 2006 and it’s recently been joined by bundled packages. Not only do many ISP’s now bundle VoIP (Voice-over-IP) style Internet call services with their broadband products, but they’ve also begun to include fixed-line and mobile phone services too.

It hadn’t previously been possible to bundle fixed-line services without reselling a rivals own product (e.g. BT’s), yet the advent of unbundled (LLU) lines has allowed ISP’s to take control of the voice product too. It hasn’t stopped there either, blurring the line between ISP, operator and broadcaster.

BSkyB recently launch its own broadband service to be bundled with its satellite TV package and even includes a voice product (triple-play - three services into one). In the near future ntl:Telewest/Virgin Mobile (Virgin Media) plan to introduce a quad-play solution, coupling broadband, fixed-line, mobile and TV into a single product.

The net result has been a growth in cost saving services offered through individual providers. Typically such an approach has its pro’s and con’s, making the administrative/billing/cost side easier, yet potentially causing problems when one aspect of the service suffers disruption.

Thankfully bundled services are not the only advantage the market can expect to see. Going forward BT has announced further price reductions to its own wholesale broadband solutions (Estimated ETA – May 2007), which could see some providers cutting prices, while others may merely offer extra (e.g. bigger data allowances).

[Next Page (3)]>>


Have something to say? Check out the ISP Review Forum -->
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/talk

Sponsored

Copyright © 1999 to Present - ISPreview.co.uk - All Rights Reserved - Terms  ,  Privacy and Cookie Policy  ,  Links  ,  Website Rules