BT accused of trigger level deceit

NEWS BT has been criticised for not being upfront with all parts of the UK about exactly how many people must express an interest in getting broadband in order for an exchange to be upgraded. Industry groups are concerned that the telecom operator is not setting broadband trigger levels for some parts of the country where there is considerable interest from local residents in getting ADSL. ADSLguide, a website that covers the UK's broadband sector, flagged on Monday 12 local exchanges that haven't been given a trigger level even though at least 250 people in each area want broadband. In one case, more than 500 people are keen to pay for a high-speed internet connection, but they still haven't been told how many more people would have to join them before this will be possible. BT's trigger levels are a measure of how many people in one area have to express an interest in getting broadband before it makes commercial sense for BT to upgrade their local telephone exchange. Thousands of triggers have been set by BT since last year, and many have already been hit thanks to local campaigning. If all those still outstanding were achieved, then ADSL coverage would reach 90 per cent of the population. But many of BT's 6,500 local exchanges have neither broadband nor a trigger level. Despite this, people who are connected to such exchanges are still registering their interest in broadband, and BT is being attacked for not giving them a clearer indication of their chances of getting broadband in the future. Topping the list of exchanges without triggers is Camelford, in Cornwall, where at last count 501 people had registered their interest in getting broadband. As long as other local exchanges are being promised broadband once as few as 150 people have registered interest with BT, Camelford residents are justified in feeling less than chuffed about their situation. BT's policy is that it will review any exchange once 150 local people have said they want broadband, but it isn't always publishing the results of these assessments. In some cases, the telco is going on to set a trigger, but in others it isn't. It's likely that in the latter case, it has found that the cost of connecting the exchange to its high-speed network is simply too high. At least one rival telco, though, believes BT should bite the bullet. Justin Fielder, Easynet's business development director, said: "What's the issue with setting a trigger level for every exchange in the country? If in some cases a trigger would be 2,000 people, then so be it." BT, though, is reluctant to put itself in a position where the trigger level for an area is actually greater than the number of local households. A BT spokesman said: "Unfortunately, it's impossible in some cases to set a viable trigger level that would give us a commercial return." He added that this could change in the future as technology improves, or if more public money became available to fund partnership schemes between BT and local development agencies. BT is currently conducting a widescale review of how it approaches the issue of making broadband available to the last 10 percent of the population. Graeme Wearden writes for ZDNet UK