Talk of a broadband divide used to be centred on the haves and the have-nots of high-speed access as a result of BT's feet dragging over rolling out ADSL to rural areas. But now that the majority of those who want it — around 96 percent of the country according to BT — have access to a broadband-enabled exchange, the protesters appeared to have been appeased.
However, the increasing perceived need for faster access through fatter pipes is threatening to change the rules of the game once again and create a new broadband divide — now based around costs and speed rather simple access.
The roots of this new broadband status quo can be traced back to a recent decision by UK Online to slash the cost of its high-speed Internet access products in certain areas. This move, announced in mid-April means that a 512Kbps connection from UK Online will cost just £9.99 a month, with a 2Mbps connection costing £19.99 a month.
The problem is that UK Online — the retail ISP of Easynet — is only offering these prices to customers who are connected to one of the 240 BT local exchanges where Easynet has installed its own equipment, a process known as local-loop unbundling (LLU). The rest of the population will have to pay £19.99 for a 512Kbps link and £29.99 for the 2Mbps option.
UK Online says that these lower prices illustrate the benefits of LLU versus reselling one of BT's wholesale broadband packages. But with LLU operators focusing on urban areas, where there are typically more customers per local exchange, some in the industry fear that rural areas will miss out.
"More competition is better for consumers, but there are concerns about the availability of low-cost services across the UK. It's a big issue, I think," says Malcolm Corbett, director of the Community Broadband Network which represents many local broadband initiatives. Corbett claims that the UK government's recently published digital strategy includes concerns about the equality of access to broadband.
LLU had largely been a failure in the UK, with just Easynet and Bulldog — now owned by Cable & Wireless — unbundling many exchanges. But last year Ofcom forced BT to cut the cost of unbundling a local exchange, which has encouraged many telcos to consider it again. Tiscali, for example, announced this month that it will spend £90m over the next three years on unbundling in the UK.
UK Online insists that its offerings in non-unbundled areas are still competitive, and hints that its new lower prices could spark a price war. Chris Stening, general manager of UK Online, points out that his firm had launched an 8Mbps consumer service last year, after which BT began trialling its own 8Mbps product.
"Would that have happened if we hadn't done what we did? We're driving the market," claims Stening.
Talkback
The Broadband divide now has many layers. BT has not given any indication if or when they may upgrade the remaining ~600 local exchanges to ADSL.
I am sadly in connected to one of these exchanges - it carries 130 lines and is only 2.3km from a main BT fibre route. Even worse that fibre joints at the bottom of my garden!
It only managed 32 registrations when the triggers were running, this was not helped by the switch not supporting ISDN. Everybody with an ISDN line is parented off another exchange with a different STD, so these lines were not counted against the local registrations. Possibly not counted against the viable / unviable decision either.
I am sure exchanges like this could be easily provisioned with a Mini DSLAM and a single 2Mb backhaul if BT were really committed. Hey, they may well get a return out of it!
Bulldog or Easynet are very wellcome to unbundle my local exchange. Perhaps we will be waiting some time.
A fair comment on the new Broadband Divide. The divide is huge when you consider some people could potentially have the choice of BT ADSL, BT SDSL, LLU such as Bulldog and a Cable provider. Contrast that with the poster above, his dialup and little prospect of ADSL.
I have had ADSL for 2 years and now upgraded to 2meg, couldn't imagine being without it! I suppose there are community broadband options but it seems that every project that went live was rapidly followed by BT activating ADSL in that area.
totally agree with this article, just what I thought when I read about it in the paper. I went straight to the website to see what it was really all about (can't trust papers to get the right story) and sure enough, it was only for the chosen few. AGAIN.
The countryside can whistle for decent broadband, no-one will deliver it. We are not economic. Even the funding streams set up to help us won't use the funds for us, they channel it into half baked schemes to 'raise awareness'. Anyone would think we weren't aware that we need decent bandwidth the same as everyone else!
As Graeme says, there is a new broadband divide actively growing again.