Posted: 07th Jan, 2007 By: MarkJ
UPDATE: Corrected title to 1.3m (doh). The Telecommunications adjudicator (OTA), Peter Black, has released his latest monthly (December'06) report on the status of UK local loop unbundling (
LLU) -
HERE. Some 1,300,000 lines have now been unhooked from BT, adding roughly 200,000 since November'06.
Meanwhile we continue to keep track of the statistics:
Jan'06 = 250,000
Feb'06 = 300,000 (+50k)
Mar'06 = 360,000 (+60k)
Apr'06 = 420,000 (+60k)
May'06 = 471,000 (+51k)
Jun'06 = 580,000 (+109k)
Jul'06 = 673,000 (+93k)
Aug'06 = 735,000 (+62k)
Sep'06 = 850,000 (+115k)
Oct'06 = 1,000,000 Estimated (+150k)
Nov'06 = 1,100,000 (+100k)
Dec'06 = 1,300,000 (+200k)
During the previous report many of the remaining problem areas with unbundling were improved, although migrations continued to be an issue.
Unfortunately this aspect continues to cause problems, yet one that all parties are trying to improve, especially in light of the regulators forthcoming migration code (MAC) rule changes in February:
Migrations; I reported last month that problems for customers continue to be reported particularly where the losing CP is using
LLU. OTA in conjunction with Ofcom and Openreach have set up and are coordinating a cross-industry plan involving
LLU operators, IPStream Resellers and BT Wholesale to allow inter-product migrations to take place seamlessly.
Whilst this plan is being developed a range of short-term actions to attempt to alleviate the issues are already in-hand involving most stakeholders. A key multilateral workshop is scheduled for 18th January to review progress and agree immediate next steps.
The increase of 200,000 over November is clearly the largest to date. It will be interesting to see whether this was just the "Christmas effect" or something more continuous.