Energis pulls out of local loop unbundling

NEWS Energis has withdrawn from the local loop unbundling (LLU) process and called on BT to provide its DSL at cost. Carl Gibson, director of public affairs at Energis, blamed BT's intransigence for the collapse of negotiations. He said: "They call it negotiation, we call it stalling. Even with Oftel's involvement we couldn't get a business case to stack up. The company will not be submitting a bid for space in 40 exchanges, and will end its trial in Battersea and withdraw from committees controlling local loop unbundling. A spokeswoman for BT said: "It is monstrously unfair to blame BT for these delays. We have met or bettered every deadline set us by Oftel." LLU was meant to bring increased competition into the broadband market by allowing BT's competitors to put their equipment into BT's exchanges. But after over a year and a half, only 150 or so customers have been connected to unbundled broadband. Only a handful of companies, including Bulldog Communications, Easynet and Fibernet, are still participating in the process. Next month, however, Energis hopes to sign a deal with BT for a new broadband product, which will provide some of the benefits of LLU without the cost of putting DSL equipment in BT's exchanges. Energis called on Oftel to force BT to provide these interconnect services at cost price. Energis said in a statement: "This will reduce the cost of broadband to a more affordable level and will introduce competition into the market. "At the moment BT is not providing interconnect products and its wholesale products appear to be charged at prices that are set significantly above the underlying costs," it added.