BT BROADBAND REGISTRATION SCHEME GOES LIVE

BT 's broadband registration scheme went live today with the publication of individual demand levels ranging from 200 to 500 user registrations at which 338 exchanges would be enabled for ADSL broadband service.

BT Wholesale chief executive Paul Reynolds said: "This registration scheme gives an ideal opportunity for everybody interested in delivering broadband Britain - including customers, service providers, communities and BT - to work together to help make it happen."

As registrations progress, as well as being able to check if their exchange has been enabled for ADSL, customers can use the bt.com/broadband website to see if a trigger level has been set and the level of demand currently registered against that exchange.

For the remaining 162 exchanges in the review of 500 announced in April, work is continuing to establish costs before a threshold is set. Threshold levels for these exchanges plus a further 400 exchanges will be included in the on-line database in phases between now and September.

For the bulk of exchanges where trigger levels are published, the threshold level has been set at 350 or 400 user registrations based on site specific costs for installation of equipment and backhaul connection to BT's core network.

Anybody wanting to sign up for ADSL broadband services should register through a service provider who will in turn feed numbers into a central BT Wholesale database to pull together total demand for each exchange. A full list of ADSL service providers is available at www.bt.com/broadband which has links to their web-sites.
 
Paul Reynolds said: "Extending the reach and take-up of broadband is absolutely core to BT's strategy.  We are determined to grow the broadband market with all the benefits it can deliver for Britain's businesses and communities.

"For every one of these exchanges we have carried out a detailed review of the cost involved in providing ADSL and the thresholds set reflect those costs.
"We're responding to those groups who have drummed up interest in broadband through petitions and newsgroups.  We listened and now we encourage people to contact a service provider and formally register their interest."

BT has set a target of providing one million broadband connections by summer 2003. So far more than 270,000 customers have been connected to ADSL. BT Wholesale has enabled 1,115 exchanges, serving 66 per cent of Britain's households and 73 per cent of current internet users.

The 900 exchanges being reviewed for the broadband registration scheme, together with the 1,115 exchanges already ADSL-enabled, serve more than 80 per cent of Britain's homes.

Notes to Editors

The new database will enable service providers to log end user orders against a threshold level for the local exchange. When demand reaches the threshold for a particular exchange BT Wholesale will inform service providers who will have 42 days to convert registrations into advance orders. When the number of orders confirmed meets required levels, and other technical criteria met, the exchange will be included in the build programme for ADSL deployment.

Service providers are being given the opportunity for bulk input of details of potential customers who have already shown an interest in areas where ADSL was previously not available.
 
Registration does not guarantee future ADSL service as target levels of demand would need to be reached and individual customer lines would be subject to line survey and distance constraints on ADSL availability. The current availability checker for ADSL and a full list of ADSL service providers can be found at the website: www.bt.com/broadband.

The broadband registration database will record interest against every exchange in the country.  Should significant numbers of registrations be recorded against any exchange not previously reviewed due to low internet use patterns, an individual costing review would be carried out and a threshold trigger level set.

© BT Group plc 2002    Taken from BT Media Centre Press Releases