Telia quashes broadband alternative talk

NEWS Telia has denied it is interested in investing in the UK broadband local loop market by offering alternative technologies to ADSL. The Swedish telco could bring its experience from the process in Scandinavia and offer different technologies such as broadband fixed wireless access (BFWA), fibre LAN and power-line access according to a Computerwire report. Mark Sensier, the managing director of Telia UK, said in the article this would allow customers, whether they are service providers, network integrators or others to brand this different broadband local loop option onto their own residential or SME customers. But he told silicon.com: "We have not said we wish to enter the UK market, just that we are looking at the alternative technologies as I'm sure many others are also doing." Alan Pyne, analyst at Schema, said with the advance of new technologies such as 3G services he regards local loop unbundling as the most important topic in the telecommunications industry in the UK. Whether or not Telia is looking to offer alternative technologies he thinks such an option is feasible. But he said: "You need to have quite densely populated areas and the trouble with alternatives to the incumbent is they have to build up their infrastructure." He added: "In an ideal world local loop unbundling would be more accessible to competition because the incumbent already has the best infrastructure in place." He said he continues to find the constant delays in the unbundling process in the UK, "extremely frustrating".