BT broadband push set to disappoint

NEWS BT has been shamed into making its price cuts on wholesale broadband by the government and will fail to deliver a quality service as it protects its customer base from the competition. Bernt Ostergaard, telecommunications analyst at Giga Web, said BT Wholesale's interest is in protecting profit margins in its leased line and ISDN customers, not in promoting and guaranteeing broadband services that may see its customers moving to ISP competitors. He said: "BT has been shamed into delivering broadband at an affordable price, but you won't see it bending over backwards to guarantee it." BT is promoting a 512Kb line, but it is Asymmetric DSL (ADSL) which means the speed offered is one way - to the consumer, not away - and it is run over a shared network so the more users there are the less bandwidth there is, Ostergaard said. He added: "If this was going to be useful, BT would be supplying Symmetric DSL (SDSL provides broadband going to and from the consumer) for business users with guaranteed service levels." However, European telecoms analyst Lars Godell from Forrester Research disagreed. He told silicon.com: "This is a major step for broadband in the UK and it's not BT's fault it took so long. BT had to wait for its cost base to lower before it could make any kind of cost reductions. "The UK government and Oftel have a lot to answer for regarding the dismal state of broadband in Britain... Price regulations are stricter in the UK than anywhere else in Europe."