BT announced plans to reduce its wholesale broadband pricing, offering service providers a cost effective alternative to Local Loop Unbundling (LLU). The new pricing structure is intended to come into effect from May 2007 – at which point BT believes the UK will have achieved 1.5 million LLU lines — and will be implemented in two stages. The unveiling of the proposals will enable service providers to plan ahead.
BT said that from May 2007, service providers will see the rental charge for the most highly used wholesale broadband product — BT IPstream — reduced by 9 percent, with the price coming down from £8.40 per line per month to £7.63. This price is expected to be reduced further in the second round of changes planned for January 2008.
BT will also offer further savings for service providers at high density exchanges. The current rebate scheme that applies at 561 of these exchanges is set to be revised to cover 1,016 exchanges. The level of this rebate is also set to increase from £1.10 to £1.24 from May 2007. The rebate reflects the lower cost of providing broadband in these areas.
The increase in the rebate — combined with the lower rental price – will reduce the net monthly rental price (i.e. rental less rebate) in these exchanges from £7.30 to £6.39. This is a reduction of 12.5 per cent. Further increases to the rebate are also planned from January 2008.
In addition, BT Wholesale also confirmed that it intends to trial Wholesale Broadband Connect in selected exchanges across the UK from Summer 2007. This is a new next generation broadband service created using 21CN. Using ADSL and ADSL2+ technology, it will provide national connectivity enabling communications providers to connect their broadband and data customers to their own networks.
http://www.btplc.com
