The Office of the Telecommunications Adjudicator (OTA2) has today published its latest monthly update for May 2011 and reported that the UK is now home to 7.56 million unbundled telephone lines ( LLU ). Crucially this figure is 60,000 less than the previous months figure of 7.62m (April 2011) and marks the first ever decline.

Unbundled lines allow rival (non-BT) telephone and broadband ISPs to install and manage their own kit in BT's exchanges, which often results in considerably cheaper and or more flexible services ( e.g. Sky Broadband , O2 , BE Broadband etc. ).


The big question is why? One reason could be the attraction of faster cable solutions from Virgin Media UK. BT Retail's new generation of superfast FTTC broadband products (up to 40Mbps) are also proving to be quite popular.

Meanwhile BT and Virgin Media UK's main rivals ( TalkTalk , Sky Broadband , O2 and Orange ) have been slow to adapt and offer the new services, which could put them at a serious disadvantage. Many consumers might also be choosing to scrap their fixed line altogether and adopt a Mobile Broadband solution.

The full picture probably won't become clear until later this year when Ofcom's own telecommunication market data tables begin to show the change and give a clearer indication of where the customers have actually gone. We already know that TalkTalk , O2 and Orange have recently been bleeding subscribers.