BT today announced plans to cut wholesale prices from 1st May.
Chief Executive Ben Verwaayen said that BT was well on track to hit
its target of one million ADSL connections by the summer, having
recently passed the 800,000 mark.
ADSL, or asynchronous digital subscriber line, delivers
broadband over telephone wires. BT sells the service direct to
end-users through its BT Openworld brand. It also has to sell the
service wholesale to other ISPs that re-brand the service and
compete with BT Openworld. ADSL services compete with broadband
from cable companies such as NTL and Telewest.
Verwaayen also announced that BT had made "a series of
technological breakthroughs" that would bring ADSL within potential
reach of 90% of UK homes and small businesses. Currently, the
figure is 67%, dictated mainly by the number of telephone exchanges
that have been upgraded to cope with ADSL and the distance from
each exchange over which the services will operate.
BT plans to upgrade 600 more exchanges, subject to demand. It
has also extended the reach of ADSL broadband to up to 6kms from an
exchange – meaning that up to 98% of people connected to an ADSL
enabled exchange should be able to access the technology.
The monthly fee for the wholesale consumer product will be
reduced by up to £2 and there will be larger savings on BT's
wholesale products that are aimed at service providers who serve
small businesses. Prices for the 500kbs, 1Mbs and 2Mbs products
will be slashed by over 50%.
Verwaayen added that the speed of BT's progress is generating
economies of scale that will help BT continue to reduce costs and
progress beyond the one million figure.
