Broadband users blocked by BT upgrade

NEWS ADSL users in the UK have had their service interrupted this month because of BT upgrading Alcatel DSLAM equipment at several hundred local exchanges. BT Wholesale began upgrades on 12 September and has said less than 1,000 customers have been affected. The problem lies with end users' modems not working with the new DSLAMs. However, Emeric Miszti, security consultant and former MD of ISP CloudNine, is unhappy with progress following the breakdown of his domestic broadband service. He wrote to silicon.com after complaining to BT and then having his problem dealt with unsatisfactorily. He said: "It's a scandal that BT can behave in this manner, close tickets and basically deny knowledge while continuing a rollout with mounting problems." He added that, from related user group postings, he reckons there are "probably tens of thousands [of people affected] and it could have been going on for days with no sign of any fix". In some cases the problematic DSLAMs don't work even with Alcatel modems. The news comes as BT Group, which uses BT Wholesale ADSL like other ISPs, launches a £33m broadband advertising campaign.