The creation of these 2,300 additional triggers comes just days after e-commerce minister Stephen Timms announced a new government target of 100 percent broadband availability by 2005, though he stopped short of pledging any additional public money to the cause.
Trigger levels tell local communities how many people have to express an interest in getting a high-speed Internet connection in order for BT to invest in upgrading their telephone exchange to offer ADSL. BT's decision is a major about-face -- it has previously insisted that these local exchanges couldn't be given trigger levels as it said they simply could not be made both achievable and economically viable. The trigger levels announced on Monday will range from 100 to 500 people per local exchange. BT said that even with the trigger levels in place, some rural communities are likely to need government support to spark the introduction of service. "There's no doubt... that many of these trigger levels are very challenging to hit," said BT chief executive Ben Verwaayen on Monday. "In some areas, market stimulation alone will not be sufficient to deliver broadband." "We are critically dependent on public partnerships to stimulate demand and to intervene with support to get the exchanges enabled early and even to help reduce the triggers. This will be essential to deliver the benefits of broadband to every community," added Verwaayen, urging local and national government to do its bit. BT's move is likely to be welcomed by the millions of people who can't get ADSL today. But it could be a kick in the teeth for rural broadband activists who, faced with no trigger and no hope of one, have begun building their own community networks. They may find that this investment of time and money has been wasted if the people they hoped to serve decide to take ADSL instead.
Talkback
As a 70 year old pensioner I came late to the Computer World - I am catching up fast. I enjoy BT's ISDN service but would dearly love Broadband before I depart this world. The latest news is more than welcome - Cropredy exchange (Banbury-Oxon) was not on the list the last time I looked but all of my friends who don't yet enjoy the benefit would dearly love it. Those who already have it say 'Why don't you move to where it is already available'? At 71 coming up I don't think so - I missed going on Concorde because I thought it would last longer - tell me I shall be able to receive Broadband while I am still above ground.
And what about those of us who are on a broadband-enabled exchange, but too far from it to get ADSL? How does adding more exchanges and trigger levels help us?
The 5km limit is possibly a bigger issue than enabling more exchanges because presumably more rural exchanges will have a wider coverage and therefore exclude many locations over 5km. I am an IT consultant and have tried to arrange ADSL in a site in Harrow within the M25, where BT claim 99.7% coverage but this site suffers from the 5km problem. I feel BT should be focusing greater effort on solving this problem where the exchanges are already ADSL enabled.
Though 99% of the exchanges may be covered by this recent rise in trigger levels, have you considered the number of people, who are on a Broadband enabled exchange, but are too far away to have Broadband installed?
The recent distance increase from 5.5km to 6.0km from the exchange will not help individuals like myself. My Home is 6.07km away from the exchange and the 70m concerned, apparently prevents the Broadband technology from reaching my home.
What caused the change in the technological specification for Broadband from 5.5km to 6.0km I wonder? Was it a technical boundary or a method to control the masses from flooding the exchanges?
Have you thought about contacting the individuals between 5.5km and 6km to see if the service levels are adequate and whether they are encountering more issues?
I.e. are the exchange assets being made to sweat too much or is there more to come?