|
|
|
|
BT ANNOUNCES BROADBAND REGISTRATION TRIGGER LEVELS FOR 88 MORE EXCHANGESBT Wholesale today announced broadband registration trigger levels for a further 88 exchanges, setting the levels of demand at which ADSL service would be provided. A trigger level of 200 customer registrations has been set for 53 of the 88 exchanges. The remaining 35 exchanges have trigger levels of 650, 700 and 750 end users, reflecting the higher costs of providing broadband network capacity to link the exchange to BT's core network. BT Wholesale is continuing its review of costs of providing ADSL from individual exchanges and today's announcement means trigger levels have now been set for 426 exchanges. The review of a further 474 exchanges is continuing and the results are due to be announced in phases by the end of September. BT Wholesale director broadband, Bruce Stanford, said: "Our review of exchanges has identified lower than average costs to link 53 of these exchanges back to our core network which considerably reduces the cost of providing ADSL service to these areas. "While the review of costs had led to higher trigger levels being set for 35 exchanges, this reflects the true economics of providing ADSL services in these areas. Our commitment to widening the availability of broadband services though alternative technologies and adopting different business models remains as strong as ever and we will continue to explore innovative ways of reducing the costs of broadband provision." Since the launch of the broadband registration scheme more than 32,000 individual lines have been registered via service providers. 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 so see if a trigger level has been set and the level of demand currently registered against that exchange. 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. A full list of ADSL service providers is available at www.bt.com/broadband which has links to their web-sites. Notes to Editors The broadband registration database enables service providers to log end user registrations 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 are met, the exchange will be included in the build programme for ADSL deployment. 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 broadband availability checker for ADSL, a full list of ADSL service providers and a list of service provided participating in the registration scheme can be found at the website: www.bt.com/broadband. The broadband registration database records 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. Broadband registration trigger levels published August 3, 2002
© BT Group plc 2002 Taken from BT Media Centre Press Releases |
|
|
