Oftel Announces Unbundled Prices in U.K.

[London, ENGLAND] It’s what the ISP industry in the U.K.
has been anxiously awaiting — the final wholesale prices
for BT’s unbundled local loops, announced Friday by government
telecoms watchdog Oftel.

ISPs are unlikely to breathe a long sigh of relief. Rather,
the prices are just high enough to provoke one or two sharp
intakes of breath.

Operators wishing to take a local loop from BT will pay
a yearly rental of £122 (US $180). But there’s a lot
more. A one-off connection charge of £88 (US $130) will
add to the final cost to the end-user.

Oftel has also fixed the charges for the cables that connect
the unbundled loops in BT’s exchanges to the operators’
own equipment. In summary, the charges are: £21 (US $31)
per year rental for every 100 unbundled lines; a one-off
charge of £863 (US $1,270) for connection to equipment
within the exchange; and £674 (US $991) for connecting
cables for distant co-location.

Director General of Telecommunications David Edmonds claimed
that progress in unbundling BT’s local loop is accelerating.

“Two rounds of bidding for space in exchanges have been
successfully completed. Over 700 exchanges have been chosen
for the installation of other operators’ equipment,” said
Edmonds.

Edmonds went on to say that co-location facilities are now
available at two of the trial exchanges and will be
extended to the remaining two early in the New Year.

Clearly, the doubling of the number of operational trial
exchanges from two to four is intended to be an example of
“acceleration” in unbundling the local loop. However, critics
will not find this very impressive — and many will be
dismayed by the prices.

Edmonds said the two announcements on Friday about the final
price of loops and arrangements for shared access will help
operators finalize their plans to offer high speed DSL services
over BT’s local telephone network.

“We have also set out the basis on which shared access will
be introduced. This will offer not only operators, but consumers,
a wider choice of options for providing and receiving voice and
data services,” said Edmonds.

Although BT lost its monopoly on telephone services in the
U.K. in 1981 it has continued to dominate the market because
it owns the infrastructure. Unbundling the local loop will
open up its local infrastructure — from the exchange to
the user — to other operators.

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