After examining these local exchanges and assessing the cost of ADSL-enabling them, the telco has calculated that there aren't enough potential broadband users in each area to justify the expense of an upgrade.
BT insists that it isn't saying that these local exchanges are permanently unviable for broadband, and that it may award trigger levels in the future. It's possible, though, that community activists may step into the breach to help provide broadband in the areas affected.
Trigger levels are a measure of how many people in one area must want to get broadband before BT considers it economical to upgrade the exchange. They vary between exchanges, depending on the state of the network and the cost of adding extra space to accommodate the broadband kit. BT explained on Thursday that at these 322 exchanges there just aren't enough people living in each area to justify rolling out ADSL.
"We've reviewed the exchanges, and under current circumstances we can't see a case for setting a trigger because the total number of customers needed simply wouldn't be achievable," a BT spokesman said, adding that in many cases the number needed is actually greater than the total number of local households.
The telco giant isn't ruling out upgrading the exchanges in the future, though, and insists they'll be under "active review", in case new technologies or partnerships change the situation.
Even though trigger levels have never been set for these 322 exchanges, many people have registered their interest with BT anyway. These pockets of broadband demand could yet be served with high-speed Internet access through local action.
Over 20 groups of broadband activists, including the Access to Broadband Campaign (ABC), have now banded together in an umbrella organisation called the Community Broadband Network (CBN). Its objective is to link together communities who have taken a DIY approach to broadband provisioning, letting them share their experience and expertise.
E-commerce minister Stephen Timms announced government support for CBN on Wednesday.
Lindsey Annison, one of ABC's founders, believes that the local communities who are affected by BT's decision should see the setback as an opportunity to take a proactive approach. She pointed out that significant funding is on offer to places that aren't seen as economically viable by commercial broadband providers.
"If you live in one of these areas, you shouldn't be downhearted because it's good news in some ways," Annison told ZDNet UK.
"Regional development agencies such as SEEDA and EEDA have funds available," Annison said, adding that the Rabbit (remote area broadband inclusion trial) project is already helping many small businesses in remote areas to get broadband.
To see a list of the 322 exchanges that BT has decided it can't set a trigger level for, click here.
Talkback
How can we be confident that the rural broadband suppliers will stay in busines. In Haddenham (Cambs) and adjacent villages the company who had started installation went out of business wiyhout warning. The reason givenwas a afilure on some bureacrats part to get subsidy funds throaugh. It ought to be part of BTs, and other telcos licence conditions that they have a statutory duty to provide broadband ifin areas theybsupply other telecom services. Politicians really ought to find out what is actually happening on the ground rather than mouthing platitudes.
There is with no doubt, economical reasons for BT not to roll out ADSL country wide, but as per usual, BT have yet failed to grasp the fundimentals of business. BT (before they were privitised) used to lead the way in technology and offering services to the CUSTOMER who pay the company £m's in revenue a day. Even the "Cost effective" arguement is not a "valid" excuse. As an individual who deals with building networks for a large company, the payback period for equipment is undeniably the point that governs installation. BT have obviously set their targets too high, or most proberly are paying too much for the kit in the first place. Turn around profit time is variable, and is always offset by the larger- more populated exchanges. BT will have to pull their fingers out and get ADSL to all exchanges, otherwise they will once again loose out to the "satellite and cable" companys. BT made a classic blunder years ago with ISDN, they should be wary of making the same mistake again.
Where can I get a list of these 322 exchanges ???
Good point. ADSLGuide.org.uk has compiled a handy list of the 322 exchanges, and we've just added a link to their list to our story.
Am I the only one to think that BT should not be allowed to apply a business model where a single exchange has to be a profit centre? The exchange is an arbitrary unit and is bound to produce anomalies. This algorithm has worked quite well for a year to prioritse the roll out programme in a reasonable fair way. It's value is at an end now.
When I started to campaign for Broadband for Chelford, Cheshire in July, I did a back of an envelope calculation that suggested that we would beed 400 - 800 BB users to recover BT's claimed costs. That suggests a minimum exchange size of 3500 to 7000 lines. We have 1043.
The individual exchange model is always going to fail at some small size. If the same rules were applied to voice, then small exchanges would probably also be uneconomic. I assume they will all close next week. Get your pigeons ready.
We need a proper regulator to enforce the government will to get BB everywhere but then our politicians actually believe the UK leads the world in BB technology. I have friends in rural areas Belgium and Switzerland. One was getting 3Mbps at £10 a month.
Quote from BT
"We've reviewed the exchanges, and under current circumstances we can't see a case for setting a trigger because the total number of customers needed simply wouldn't be achievable," a BT spokesman said, adding that in many cases the number needed is actually greater than the total number of local households.
Sme exchanges with only 800 lines have had trigger levels set. Perranporth has a 2470 lines connected to it according to BT and is one of the recently announced "unviables". Given the fact that lesser exchanges have had trigger levels set, how many people do BT need to sign up to make an exchange of Perranporth's size viable?
My exchange KINGSLEY has 3 primary schools on it not viable? what about gov't commitments to schools?
"How many people do BT need to sign up to make an exchange of Perranporth's size viable?"
As I understand it BT require to recover cost in 3 years and they say it costs 250k to 500k to upgrade depending on backhaul (and number of users) They get £13 a month for a user from the ISP. So at 250k they need 534 users average just to break even. They are said to work on 1 in 4 Internet users taking BB and they can measure the dial up traffic though the exchange. If you are at the high end of costs with a lot of retired people, you are unviable!
Subtending through another exchange reduces the back-haul costs but has strict network design limits. This makes a 1000 line exchange with < 300 users profitable (150 trigger level). There are lots of anomalies in the role out.
The Exchange ACtivate programme will enable any exchange in blocks of 30 users for £1000 a user for the first three years. It gives a low performance form of ADSL. ISP are not interested without subsidy to bring the costs down to the same as BT Wholesale
But even if the local exchange has been triggered, it doesn't mean that lines on that exchange will be able to connect to broadband.
I live two and a half miles from the local exchange (Tideswell) which can provide broadband to immediate residents, but NOT to me and to other people in this village (Little Hucklow) who want to have broad band.
What can be done about this?
BTs' intentions are now clear on the UKs rural population. I remember when BT were making £1m profit a minute (alledgedly)- now they are turning customers away. However, I suspect that this announcement may be tactic to incite the RDAs, UK Government and the EU to fund their rollout and BTs ailing coffers. BT are "crying wolf", they can deliver a service without the need for trigger levels - and the rollout of ADSL underpins BTs 10 year strategy - (so they will have to upgrade each exchage anyway). I have just helped an Eastern European country select ADSL exchange equipment that allows for a trigger level of just 8 subscribers- so it can be done 'economically'. BTs own ADSL equipment suppliers (Alcatel and Fujitsu ) have gear that can can enable 24 subscribers in a rural exchange! What BT dont want to pay for is the fibre optic backhaul upgrades. (Many BT exchanges have fibre links in place already they just need to upgrade the gear on the ends of the fibre). The cost of digging fibre is something that should have been done by BT anyway to run System X exchanges 20 years ago. BT is frustrating their home market place and the people from whom they have extracted large profits from for the last 20 years. Communities, parish councils and local authorities can now start to look around seriously at 3rd party providers who can deliver wireless technologies that deliver a better and faster service. It will only cost £60m to cover the whole of the UK and provide a 100MB service to each user. Whats needed is an clever and innovative banker to fund the rollout. If anyone wants to register their interest at seeking guidance on alternative offerings - please email me at paul@aldertel.com.