Posted: 17th Dec, 2004 By: MarkJ
Internet providers have followed the big operators by welcoming the recently announced local loop unbundling (LLU) price cuts. However, adopting such a technology has its difficulties:
But this price cut only applies to full LLU where the operator has installed, owns and controls the lines right through to the customers' homes. This requires a massive investment in equipment and laying lines, so many ISPs are likely to turn to shared LLU. This is a compromise where they do put in equipment in the exchanges but continue to use BT's copper lines to people's homes.
But although most ISPs have welcomed the price cuts, they have reservations and said that the processes for transferring people to shared LLU are not robust enough yet. In a statement ISP Wanadoo said without these, the introduction of competition and new products to the Broadband market will be delayed or frustrated.
ISP Tiscali echoed this view. "LLU is a significant investment for ISPs so switching a customer to LLU has to be a seamless process so there is no disruptive loss of service. But the processes to do this are not in place and haven't even been defined yet. Customers would not be happy if they lost services for days, possibly weeks. While we do plan to LLU, at the moment for Tiscali it is a case of watch this space".More @
VNUNet.