Hello

As there was lots of discussion here regarding ADSL, BT just reduced the wholesale price today.

There is no excuse not to get it now. Unless you live in an area that isn't enabled of course ......

http://www.btplc.com/Mediacentre/Arc...002/nr0209.htm

Steve.

I take that this is only going to apply to new customers?
I would hope that all of the people that have been paying through the nose would get a reduction too. You never know.....:rolleyes:

Cheers,

Nick:)

Hello

Apparently this will apply to existing customers as well. As the cost to the ISP has gone down by £10 per month even on current contracts. Don't expect any reductions until April/May though.

Steve.

Rental for existing ADSL wholesale customers of these services will also drop to £14.75.

Whether individual ISPs pass it on is up to them :)

I notice installation has gone up to £210 though!

Geezer

Pipex Wires Only.

From 1st April 2002, Price will be £19.95 + VAT with free installation. However, you need to pay for a modem and splitters (around £100). Sorted. I'm ordering mine on 1st April :)

Steve

Fat lot of good that does for non-enabled exchanges ....Edenbridge for instance.....


Jeff

Hi Jeff

The THEORY is that the more people that take ADSL, the more BT are inclined to enable more exchanges.

Steve.

Hmmm.

I live in one of the major residential areas around here. I've found out what exchange we are on and where it is. This exchange supplies several 000s houses and yet we don't get ADSL.

Another scenario at work...

We have two small units one a new business park being funded by EU / Government money (it used to be coal mine). Warehouses, offices etc are going up all over the shop. However, BT have a choice of two exchanges locally. One is ADSL enabled, the other isn't. Guess which exchange feeds all this lovely new estate? :rolleyes: Some of the buildings at the entrance to the park can have ADSL as they run back to the main exchange in town but BT have denied a major new business park ADSL connectivity. The none ADSL exchange is running at 15% spare capacity on 2Mbps cores, the ADSL one has 25% spare cores.

Whoever spec'd the BT setup for the site wants a damn good kicking IMO.

Ok

1) I dont deny BT need a damn good kicking occasionally

2) See above ;)

3) ADSL enabling an exchange is not a cheap action. Consider what businesses are currently charged for a "decent" (e.g. 34 Mbps) Internet pipe. That would typically be the absolute minimum that may need to tbe provided to an ADSL exchange (they're not going to just uplink it to the next exchange with another ADSL circuit are they ?) 1 subscriber's £40 (pre today price) a month is not going to pay for capital cost of ADSL kit, rental of bandwidth to the core, overal increase in bandwidth in core. If only BT could supply the core bandwidth at rock bottm prices it might just be possible - but that would be uncompetetive and would be illegal.

So we need multiple users to make an exchange viable for ADSL. No-one signs up if the exchange isnt enabled. Chicken and Egg.

The only exchanges worth enabling are those that are big enough to have a chance of statistcally enough customer to fund the initial investment.

Chris - Its a fair bet ;) that the exchange near you that is enabled is a damn site bigger than the one that isn't so is statistically likely enough to have enough customers to justify the investment.

We're not talking a couple of hundred exchanges here - its thousands and a huge investment. if you read the Business pages its a fair bet that you may have noticed BT (and almost all other comms companies) are not cash rich enough to fund the sort of investment required to enable all exchanges regardless of potential customer base.

The price reduction is a gamble that the additional customers in already enabled areas will still cover the current investment and provide extra.

If you want ADSL in a rural area - persuade as many friends as possible (it doesnt matter what ISP) to take it in an urban area.

Next time you read how much money the government made from 3G licences, stop and think and much better it would be for everyone if the companies concerned had been persuaded, through gvernment leadership, to poor that much cash into broadband enabling the UK instead of a ridiculous auction for survival that will stifle investment in broadband for many years and make todays mobile prices seem unbelievably cheap.

Ok waffle/rant over. Damn that was a nice fine wine :)

Deano

p.s. that took so long to type my ISDN timed out. I soooo wish I could get ADSL. - but all the tight gits in high density areas wont buy enough :D

"Chris - Its a fair bet that the exchange near you that is enabled is a damn site bigger than the one that isn't so is statistically likely enough to have enough customers to justify the investment."

Most likely - the core capacities gives that away (the ADSL enabled one has four times the number of cores) ;). What's annoyed me is that a new high profile business park is plumbed into what is really a residential exchange. Very short sighted in IMHO.

In theory, I live in one of the more upmarket areas (although my Dad always says it's not that posh if he can afford to live round here). I think the number of houses with PCs is going to be high ie lots of families with kids etc, hence a good customer base.

Is there an official way to show BT there's a lot of potential customers for ADSL? The cable companies ignored round here as well. They did put a backbone down the main street but have never come off that onto the housing estates.

PS...

"BT (and almost all other comms companies) are not cash rich enough"

I've probably got more money in my change jar on the windowsill than Energis right now :D

I don't know enough of the processes to say for sure but would imagine the only option is for enough business people to register interest and bug the sh*t out of their account managers. explain how many large contracts would be available if coverage rose to 90% population etc.

Any businesses in IP6 *** take note :)

Deano

P.S. Cheap trick for post count incrementing :D

wow, when I ordered cable from NTL last September ADSL wasn't available in my area (hence why I got cable). Now I've just checked BT's web site and it is available! :D

Matt

Stone him !

lol :D

Ouch! oh you meant it!! NOOoooooo ;)

Matt