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edited emails, in sequence, to BT's CEO/Chairman and Corporate
responses, should you wish to see all the texts then please email me.
From: Paul M Tate
To: 'cceo@bt.com'
Subject: Broadband for Wroxton st Mary
Sir
Could you please confirm if you have reviewed the Wroxton St Mary Exchange (SMWX)
and whether a broadband trigger level will ever be set?
From: cceo@bt.com [mailto:cceo@bt.com]
To: Paul M Tate
Subject: Customer Service System - Ref:302162
Dear Mr Tate
Thank you for your e-mail of 23 March.
I have arranged for this matter to be investigated by our Complaint Review
Service and one of our people will respond to you as soon as possible. If you
have any enquiries in the meantime the Complaint Review Service can be contacted
on 0800 671704.
Phil Rhodes
Assistant to the Chairman & Chief Executive
From: john.fisher@bt.com [mailto:john.fisher@bt.com]
To: Paul M Tate
Subject: Broadband...Wroxton St Mary
Importance: High
Sensitivity: Confidential
Dear Mr Tate,
Thank you for your recent e-mail sent to our Chairman's Office concerning the
provision of Broadband at your local exchange, Wroxton St Mary. I would like to
thank you for your query, but in this instance, I regrettably have to inform you
that at present, there has been no review about the exchange.
I took the opportunity to view your website www.broadband4wroxton.org.uk and
I confess that I was impressed by your worthy attempts to promote the virtues of
Broadband within the area. There seems little point in my prevaricating about
what BT Wholesale is doing to upgrade as many exchanges as possible, based upon
the registration and trigger level scheme, as you are clearly well informed.
I'm not entirely certain that there is anything that I can add, other than
when there is sufficient demand, full cost reviews are undertaken to determine
whether an exchange should be upgraded. The likelihood is that your exchange
will not be upgraded in the foreseeable future. I accept that this will not be
what you would like to hear, and I sympathise entirely with your situation,
especially in view of BT's overall commitment to have Broadband at the heart of
future plans.
If you have any queries about this, please don not hesitate to contact me and
I will be happy to assist you. I would also be very happy to act as a single
point of contact within BT, thus answering any queries you have, or updating you
every so often with updates etc. The more interest that can be enlisted, and the
more help we can offer, the sooner you and other customers will benefit from
Broadband.
I look forward to hearing from you.
John Fisher
Business Complaint Review Manager
Telephone: 0800 243 632
Fax: 0800 212753
E-Mail: john.fisher@bt.com
PP 8, Warrington Call Centre, 110, Europa Boulevard, Warrington, WA5 5FZ
From: Paul M Tate [mailto:paul@pmtate.co.uk]
To: Fisher,J,John,SKW7CH R
Subject: RE: Broadband...Wroxton St Mary
Thank you for your prompt response. Hopefully you can clarify the following:
1. What constitutes "sufficient demand" to get a review? As of
today we have 100 registrations on the BT Wholesale website and are 633rd on
the Broadband league table site with more registrations than some with trigger
points. (http://www.broadbandleague.org/complete6.html). The Coningsby
exchange has been set a trigger point of 350 with only 84 registrants.
2. What is the "foreseeable future" six months, twelve months, two
years.....?
You are no doubt aware that there is a point when alternative solutions
must be investigated, the obvious option for the villages is wireless which
needs a leased line to operate on. Leased line contracts are in multiples of
12 months. I do not want to put a solution together, sign a 12 month contract
for the backhaul pipe and then you put broadband in the exchange pinching all
the potential revenue, some timescales would be nice.
From: john.fisher@bt.com [mailto:john.fisher@bt.com]
To: Paul M Tate
Subject: RE: Broadband...Wroxton St Mary
Thank you for your response yesterday. I have made further enquiries
regarding some of the points that you have made below, and would like to respond :
ccordingly.
BT have rolled out broadband in different ways. Firstly, we have upgraded our
core network and its main branches. These cover our largest exchanges in densely
populated areas, where we could expect our investments to be returned within a
reasonable time. Together, they covered some 1100 of our about 5500 exchanges,
but as these were large exchanges, they reached 66% of the UK population.
The remaining 33% are on about 4400 smaller exchanges, which means we are
faced with a situation where every investment is no longer sure to be returned.
Average demand in areas where broadband is available, rests at a disappointing
4.5 per cent, which is not enough to cover the expenses of upgrading these areas
for ADSL. We therefore decided to start the pre-registration scheme, which has
so far allowed us to upgrade more than hundred exchanges.
Upon the start of the scheme, there were of course no pre-registrations
available and we therefore used criteria like the size of the exchange and the
amount of internet users to determine which 900 exchanges we wanted to enter
into the scheme. In rolling out ADSL broadband, we have decided to judge each
exchange on its own merits, regardless of geographical location. I would like to
add that the trigger levels are based on the actual costs of upgrading the
exchange, in the sense that they are set at 50 per cent of the amount of
customers we need to return our investments within three years. We expect demand
to rise once the service is made available. The targets are not set as a
percentage of the amount of connections to the exchange.
We have performed a full cost analysis on all these 900 exchanges and set
targets for 658 of them. For the rest, the costs of upgrading the exchange was
too high to set a realistic trigger level and we decided not to publish them. In
January we were able to reduce the costs of upgrading an exchange and this
allowed us to set targets for an additional 87 exchanges which were previously
unviable.
As Wroxton St Mary did not fit the criteria outlined above, it was not
included in this first set. However, we are currently working on reviews for the
remaining approx. 3500 exchanges. They are prioritised according to demand,
meaning we will give preference to those exchanges with high registration
levels. Those with more than 200 pre-registrations, which is also our lowest
threshold, will definitely receive a review.
Therefore, it is difficult to determine when your exchange will be upgraded.
Present criteria will mean at least another 100 registrations before a review
will be undertaken. More positively perhaps, such matters are always open to
review, and there might be changes to the threshold for registrations.
I also reiterate that I am very happy to act as a point of contact within BT
if you require help and information.
Finally, I'm not entirely sure what benefit there will be, but I can see no
objection to you quoting the e-mail I sent initially.
I hope this helps, and look forward to hearing from you.
From: Paul M Tate [mailto:paul@pmtate.co.uk]
To: Fisher,J,John,SKW7CH R
Subject: RE: Broadband...Wroxton St Mary
I note that there is a new press release
(http://www.btplc.com/Mediacentre/Archivenewsreleases/2003/nr0311.htm)
This seems to contradict your statement of over 200 would be needed to be
reviewed as some of the 102 exchanges that have just been reviewed have less
than 100 registrations at this time!
From: john.fisher@bt.com [mailto:john.fisher@bt.com]
To: Paul M Tate
Subject: RE: Broadband...Wroxton St Mary
Importance: High
Sensitivity: Confidential
It would appear that there are some exchanges with trigger levels lower than
yours, but these were included in the 900 or so chosen to be entered into the
pre-registration scheme at the beginning. Cost analysis was done at all 900
selected exchanges, and 658 were then set targets. Each exchange was judged upon
its own merits, as the overall cost of upgrade will vary from exchange to
exchange. In January, a further 87 exchanges were set trigger levels.
This leaves some 3500 other exchanges throughout the country. It has been
decided that a cost review will only be considered at these exchanges once there
are at least 200 confirmed registrations. This is currently the minimum criteria
for these exchanges, which does include Wroxton.
I hope this clarifies the position for you, but please do not hesitate to
contact me if you have any other queries.
Many Thanks
John
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