A little like oom really from my point of view - I believe they are the favoured company within their sector and despite the markets - Oftel and the G3 nonsense they will climb back. They pay a divi and this wioll be seen to be increasingly important in the days to come. They have new management and are looking to enhance shareholder value .....

I hold and swing trade a few and not adverse to intraday trading them.

ains


BT in web-based investor relations drive

London, February 7 2003, (netimperative)



by Chris Lake

BT is launching a web-based scheme which it hopes will improve communications with its retail shareholders and help cut costs.


Dubbed 'ShareholderPlus', the system allows investors to sign up and receive BT communications - such as reports, news releases, mandates and, subject to a change in the law, electronic tax vouchers - by email, rather than by post.

BT said this will help it achieve cost savings - by not having to print and despatch reports - and pointed out that it is also good for the environment.

Furthermore, it has negotiated a number of deals with companies such as Virgin Wines, Apollo Travel, RSA and National Car Rental, to market the service and said it will add new offers in the future if it proves to be a success.

BT claims to be one of the first FTSE100 companies to launch such a programme, though it is likely that more will follow.

www.btplc.com/shareholderplus

BT customers get help to watch TV!
Tuesday 25 March 2003, 6:39:58 AM
United Kingdom
Written by Peter Harris
BT Openworld customers no longer have any excuse for missing their favourite television programmes.


The ISP has teamed up with Onthebox.com to offer a text-based TV reminder service. Customers sign up online and click on selected programmes from a wide range of regional, national, cable, satellite and specialist channels - from Anglia to Zee TV. Alerts are then delivered via SMS to their mobile phone 15 minutes, one hour, two hours or six hours before the programme starts.


Customers should go to www.btopenworld.com, to access the service and register their details. Alerts are priced at 25p per text.


Nick Hazell, online director at BT Openworld said: "We aim to provide the best tools for our customers. This particular service is designed to help users take time out of their busy lives to watch the programmes they enjoy. Lets face it, weve all meant to watch our favourite soap or an interesting documentary, but got sidetracked by other things. Now, thanks to a combination of the internet and mobile technologies, theres no excuse."


Stuart Horwood, managing director BT Wholesale markets, who provided the technology, said: "We are delighted to be announcing this SMS service which demonstrates BT Wholesales ability to provide applications for consumer-facing lifestyle products as well as its established infrastructure solutions."


Charles Black, of Onthebox.com, who are supplying the programme listings, said: "Text alerts are a very exciting addition to the Onthebox TV listings as they enable users to get added benefit from the service. Our research and testing of the service have shown that the programme alerts will be very popular. Weve partnered with BT Wholesale to deliver the SMS functionality and are delighted that the service is being launched exclusively on BT Openworld".

BT Wholesale have released details of plans to extend the number of SDSL exchanges from 22 upto 100. This extension is due to be completed by the end of May 2003. With a commercial launch of the service this summer.

We are lead to believe by information passed on by Service Providers involved in the SDSL trials that the rollout will be something like:
14th April: 28 exchanges in Greater London, Greater Manchester and parts of Yorkshire
19th April: 11 exchanges in Greater London
28th April: 17 exchanges in the West Midlands
12th May: 22 exchanges in Scotland

BT Unveils New Speeds
British Telecom, Telewest, begin race
British Telecom today unveiled several upgrades to their DSL offerings that are in the works, including a 1Mbps broadband service to be launched sometime next year, with trials starting this Autumn. The company also announced it would be modifying its "trigger levels" (or how many subscribers are needed near a rural CO to warrant installation), as well as expanding the range for the company's 512Kbps ADSL offering. BT also says its SDSL offerings will be extended from their existing 22 local exchanges to a total of 100 by this May, with a commercial launch of the technology scheduled for this summer. Calling BT a "one trick pony" UK cable provider Telewest announced plans for a new 2MB service the same day.

ZDN - Both the government and BT must do more to help the creation of high-speed wireless networks in the UK if Broadband Britain is to become a reality, MPs said on Tuesday.

Leading a debate on broadband in rural areas, Sir George Young MP criticised the government for not doing enough to close a digital divide which currently means that somewhere between 80 and 90 percent of rural areas have no access to affordable broadband.



According to Sir George, the government has failed thus far to give out full details of how it will deliver broadband to every school, hospital and GP's surgery, as promised by Prime Minister Tony Blair last November.

Many MPs are keen to see this commitment fulfilled in such a way that the wider community also benefits -- perhaps by ADSL-enabling the local exchange or installing a Wi-Fi connection that could be shared by surrounding households in the evenings -- rather than a solution such as using leased lines that wouldn't be shared.

"A bolder and preferable target for the government would be to specify a delivery mechanism for schools which would bring both opportunities for that school, and automatically pull through additional broadband infrastructure to rural areas that might otherwise have to wait a long time for broadband under normal commercial conditions," said Sir George.

Several other MPs backed this point, and two urged e-commerce minister Stephen Timms to make the 2GHz band available to telcos.

"The government has not released the 'sweet spot' 2GHz spectrum," said Sir George, adding that the government had to make a decision between concentrating on making the maximum revenue through spectrum auctions and on making appropriate spectrum available.

Timms did not address this point in his response to the comments raised in the debate, though.

BT has been urging the government to give it access to 2GHz for months -- a request that had been refused, as the spectrum is already used by military and security services. Some experts, though, have indicated that 2GHz is not the best spectrum for broadband and that telcos should look at 3.4GHz, 5.8GHz and even 28GHz.

Although some MPs congratulated BT for its recent broadband initiatives such as its registration scheme and its mini-DSLAMs, the telco did not escape criticism.

Richard Allan MP pointed out that the telco had the power to either help or hinder the work of community activists who are trying to build broadband wireless networks in their area, and suggested that BT should offer an affordable product to link these networks to its backbone.

"We need some imagination from the providers of fixed line networks, who are in a position to encourage or discourage wireless rollout. Wi-Fi groups aren't allowed to feed all their traffic down one ADSL line, so BT could come up with an innovative and helpful contract for these people. It wouldn't have to be free, just competitively priced," suggested Allan.

In his response, Timms agreed that wireless had a key role to play, and suggested that the upgrading of public sector buildings to broadband could help bring down the cost of connecting Wi-Fi networks to the Internet.

"The solution isn't that government provides subsidies for broadband. Instead, it's the public sector's role as a customer that is so important. We need to maximise that demand, and ensure that it is used to bring broadband to local communities," Timms told the assembled MPs.

Timms added that he had recently visited a company called Rutland Online that is setting up a Wi-Fi network which had told him that 50,000 of their projected 90,000 spending over two years was made up of network backhaul costs. By upgrading building such as schools to broadband, the government might help to bring this cost down by helping to create more infrastructure, Timms suggested.

BT has offered thousands of its workers a 3.8 per cent pay rise.

The Communication Workers Union has recommended that its members accept the deal, which will benefit around 80,000 workers, ranging from operators to engineers.

A ballot of workers will start next week and the result will be announced mid-April.

A BT spokesman said: We believe it is an offer which acknowledges the contribution of our employees.

By Quentin Reade

BT to trial 1Mbps ADSL
By Tim Richardson
Posted: 25/03/2003 at 15:10 GMT


BT is to trial a new home-based 1Mbps ADSL service in the autumn which, if successful, could be rolled-out as a full commercial service before the end of the year.

News of BT's decision to provide a 1Mbps service comes on the same day that Telewest said it plans to trial a 2Mbps service for its consumers ahead of a full launch later this year.

BT Wholesale also confirmed that it now has more than 750,000 ADSL-connected end users and - despite some doubts - is on target to hit one million broadband punters by the summer.

In a raft of announcements made today, BT Wholesale claims that it is listening to its customers (ie. ISPs) and is working to offer new services.

Many of today's announcements are merely teasers for trials and pilots for later in the year and in some cases full details, such as pricing and spec, have yet to be finalised. However, today's announcements give an idea of BT's progress on broadband.

For example, as well as trialling a 1Mbps service for the home, BT Wholesale is also to test an entry-level 256Kbps product in the autumn. However, there are indications that BT does not regard this as being a true "broadband" service and is unlikely to market it as such, even though this will be an ADSL product.
Prices and other details surrounding both the 256Kbps and 1Mbps services are expected to be announced in the summer.

BT is also planning to extend the reach of its ADSL service which it claims will mean that an extra 600,000 households in DSL-enabled areas should be able to hook up to broadband. The reason why they can't lies in the fact that BT's 512Kbps ADSL service is only effective up to a range of around 5.5km from the exchange. Beyond that, and the line can suffer a reduction in signal strength leading to a duff service.

However, the telco now reckons it can effectively extend the range to 6km and still maintain a decent line quality to provide a 512Kbps ADSL service. The predictions are that 97 per cent of those connected to ADSL-enabled exchanges will now be within reach when this new initiative finally goes live sometime in June.

On a similar note, BT is also mulling whether to introduce a "simple fix" that would mean people connected to their local exchange via optical fibre (which doesn't support ADSL) - rather than copper - should be able to get broadband. Once again, more details of this are expected to be published next month will a full service launch pencilled in for June.

Providing an update on its broadband demand registration scheme, BT reports that so far 300,000 people from non-DSL areas have registered their interest in ADSL. So far 35 exchanges have been upgraded as a direct result of the scheme with a further 206 in the process of being upgraded by BT.

By next Monday, BT expects to publish triggers for a further 102 exchanges where demand has been strong but which have so far not been given thresholds.

Finally, BT is also expanding trials of its SDSL service from the current 22 exchanges to 100, with a view to launching the service commercially in August this year.

155 now.......new lows coming or a bounce from previous lows around 1.45?

Clearly they will move with the market and the sector ..... not sure that should move with the war news ..... but that's the market

This looks good


LONDON (Reuters) - BT Group has said it will cut prices on evening and weekend phone calls in the UK, making some charges up to 20 times cheaper than those of its main rivals.
BT Together customers will pay six pence for up to an hour on all evening and weekend calls made in the UK, BT BT.L said in a statement. The BT Together scheeme will see the end of per-minute charging for all evening and weekend calls with one rate for UK and local calls.

Market seems to like the marketing initiative - up 3% @ 167p




LONDON (AFX) - BT Group PLC, the UK's dominant telecom provider, said it would cut call costs on its most popular household offer BT Together from June 1, making it up to 20 times cheaper than its main rivals.

The company said it will scrap per-minute charging for all evening and weekend calls and make distance irrelevant, with one rate for UK and local calls.

Under the new scheme BT's 10 mln BT Together customers will pay 6 pence for up to an hour on all evening and weekend calls made to anywhere in the UK.

According to prices quoted by BT, 30-minute and 1 hour national evening calls with One.Tel cost 78 pence and 1.53 stg, compared with 6 pence under BT Together.

A single 10-minute national evening call using Carphone Warehouse costs 13 pence more. At the weekend British Gas charge 45 pence for a 30-minute call, and the Post Office 1.08 stg, said the company.

Angus Porter, managing director of BT Retail's consumer division, said: "We are determined to be competitive and build on our position as the consumer champion in fixed-line telephony."

"Claims by some competitors of savings over BT are often just plain misleading, as they are based on comparisons with our standard rate, which is only for customers for whom it would not be economic to be on a fixed call package," he added.

Speaking on a conference call with reporters, Porter said, "a number of people have indicated they can come into the market and have easy pickings."

"This is designed to be a very strong signal to everybody that we intend to protect our market share," he added.

Analysts estimate the impact of price changes on BT's revenues will be too small to show up.

CSFB said, in a research note, that total local and national calls account for about 1.8 bln stg of revenues, of which about half are residential, and about half of these residential customers are on BT Together.

In turn less than half of these revenues (about 200 mln stg of revenues) are from off-peak call minutes, said CSFB.

Still moving up @ 172p up 6% intraday :-))



BT has found a way to fight back against its fixed line rivals and make money; the shares are up and it looks good news for investors unless consumers cotton on to what lies beneath today's price changes.


BT, a long-standing Citywire tip, has made much of the 'radical' price changes it has announced today for its millions of fixed line customers, claiming it is 'up to 20 times cheaper than its major rivals'.

The move is clearly designed to try to protect its existing customer base from the ever-increasing competition. Recently Carphone Warehouse has entered the fray to sell fixed line telephony as well as mobile, and announced a deal to run a service for Sainsbury. Tesco is another contender as are One.Tel and cable operators Telewest and NTL.

But 'radical' does not mean cut-price and close inspection of the changes reveals most customers will actually be forced to pay much more for their calls.

BT confirms this. Although increased marketing costs will hit earnings in the short term it expects payback in 12 months and to increase revenue and profits thereafter. This is why its shares are up 8.5p to 170.5p.

How come? Interestingly, BT (BT.A) does not actually use the words price 'cuts' in today's announcement, which is nevertheless supposed to stop its 20 million residential household customers from fleeing to the competition.

BT's new offer is for customers of its BT Together package, who, it says, will pay only 6p for up to an hour on all evening and weekend calls made to anywhere in the UK.

The telecoms giant also criticises rivals for comparing their prices with BT's 'standard' rates rather than its discounted packaged rates.

However, Charles Wigoder, chief executive of smaller rival Telecom Plus (TEP), the London-listed supplier of fixed and mobile telephony as well as gas and electricity, reckons the 6p rate will actually mean a 20% price increase for the average BT customer.

Wigoder reckons that the average call length for domestic calls is under 4 minutes. BT's current evening and weekend rate is 1p a minute with a minimum fee of 5p, so Wigoder maintains that those customers making an average, sub-four minute phone call will now pay 6p instead of 5p.

On top of this, the BT rates apply to BT Together packages, which cost from 11.50 a month to 28.50 for a deal that gives the user the first hour of calls free at any time of day.

'I heard BT was making this announcement today and came into the office with trepidation. I expected them to do something competitive, but I'm delighted with this,' Wigoder said.

Fixed line telephony was worth some 5.2 billion in revenues to BT in 2002. The deals announced today apply only to standard fixed line calls within the UK. They do not apply to premium rate number, calls to mobile phones, calls to special numbers such as 0845 or 0870-pre-fixed numbers or to international calls.Citywire Verdict:

The good news is that BT feels rattled enough by the competition to actually start knocking competitors' pricing policies, but the bad news is that unless you regularly spend more than six minutes on each evening and weekend call, it doesn't like you're going to be any better off.

As consumers we are now bombarded by different rates and tariffs from our mobile and fixed line operators, which makes working out who is really better off, the customer or the operators, a bit of a nightmare.

Investors should be encouraged that BT is resilient in the face of competition but it is a shame that confusion marketing appears to be the solution it has chosen.

2003 Citywire

clearly broadband will become a commodiy



LONDON (AFX) - BT Group PLC said it would cut wholesale prices for its broadband offer from May 1 and easily hit its target to connect 1 mln homes by the summer.
The company also said, due to advances in technology, it can now bring broadband within reach of 90 pct of UK homes, up from its current enabled footprint of 67 pct.

BT recently passed the 800,000 mark for ADSL broadband connections.

The monthly fee for the wholesale consumer product will be reduced by up to 2 stg and there will be even larger savings on BT's wholesale products that are aimed at service providers who serve small businesses, said the company.

Prices for the 500kbs, 1Mbs and 2Mbs products will be slashed by over 50 pct, BT said.

BT's IPStream Home 500 broadband product will cost 13 stg a month, down from 14.75 stg from May 1. There will be no change in connection fees.

BT chief executive Ben Verwaayen said: "These price cuts will benefit everyone from service providers to consumers and businesses and will ensure that the UK continues to have some of the lowest prices in Europe."

The UK government has pledged to make Britain the most extensive and competitive broadband market among G7 countries by 2005.

BT's wholesale arm charges its own internet service provider BT Openworld and other ISPs such as Freeserve from 25 stg upwards per user per month for the use of the line and the technology to operate broadband.

Broadband delivers data at up to 10 times faster than traditional modems. But the UK is still running behind some of its European counterparts in terms of users, especially Germany where some 3 mln homes are connected.

Kick-starting mass market take-up of high speed internet connection forms a central plan of Verwaayen's strategy for BT's growth. tf/slm/

Nomura says they will not be changing numbers as result of announcements on prices but welcomes the moves

WdB has BT ass a buy with price target of 197p

Morten Singleton says expansion of addressable market increases BT's share of BB market

Merrill Lynch is very postive and believes the new pricing package offers significant discount to the new carphone warehouse deal

BT Looks Enticing

By Stuart Watson (TMFTiger)
April 3, 2003


BT Group (LSE: BT.A) has had a busy week. Yesterday it announced a range of price cuts designed to help maintain a 73% share of the residential calls market in the face of increasing competition. For the most part, news of the cuts was well-received by investment pundits.

Today, BT revealed 'technological breakthroughs' would allow it to increase the availability of its broadband services to 90% of UK homes. Its current 'footprint' covers just 67% of the country.

BT reckons it will have 1m broadband customers sometime this summer. It currently has just over 0.8m. At 27 per month, that equates to annual revenues of 325m, less than 2% of BT's total sales. However, with BT serving somewhere in the region of 21m UK households, there is plenty of room for further growth. BT has also reduced its wholesale broadband prices by 2 a month, so this could filter down into lower charges from other providers.

It will be interesting to see the take-up broadband grows over the next few years and how big a market share BT manages to snaffle. The high monthly cost will obviously deter a lot of light dial-up users. Unlike the residential calls market, where our natural apathy means relatively few people will bother to shop around (just 4m have done so to date apparently), broadband is a different kettle of fish. Many people will go with BT for simplicity of course, given that they use them already, but I suspect many more are likely to shop around.

Judging whether BT shares offer decent value is not easy though. It never is when a business is in a recovery stage. You're never quite sure how far profits will rebound. Will the 20%+ profit margins of old be restored? How much growth will broadband bring and how far will it compensate for falling revenues from the residential market?

BT's current market value is 14.5b and it has net debts of just over 10b. At 167p, the shares are valued at around 12 times expected earnings for the year ended 31 March. Results for this period are due to be released on 22 May. The full-year dividend is expected to be between 5.5p and 6p, implying a dividend yield in the region of 3.5%.

At this level, for my money, BT shares are starting to look enticing. They've been overpriced, often hideously so, for the last five years at least. Of course, it wouldn't hurt if they got a little cheaper! Further progress on reducing the debt pile wouldn't go amiss either. This is not a share that is going to set fire to your portfolio, but has a place as a steady performer.

nice move up from 1.55....notice a few more bullish brokers are bringing their targets down to around 2.hard market to call at moment.

I am assumming the slighly sub 2 targets relate to the current market situation and will move northwards if and when the market starts moving.



ains

April 04, 2003

Tempus

Still plenty of fight in BT
By Suzy Jagger



THE PHONE giant BT is hoping to cheer up consumers with a string of price cuts to mark its new financial year. On Wednesday the company unveiled a new tariff, which sets a maximum of 6p for off-peak calls that last up to an hour. It followed that yesterday with a cut in the benchmark wholesale price for broadband services from 14.75 a month to 13, and hopes the reduction will be passed on.
Investors, however, might well ask what is underlying the generosity. Although consumer price deflation is normal in telecoms, BT investors might have been forgiven for hoping that the financial woes of so many of its principal rivals Cable & Wireless, NTL, Telewest, Energis might have led to a calming down.

The broadband move is largely expected. Since the arrival of Ben Verwaayen as chief executive, BT has been converted to the belief it is possible to expand markets through price cuts. The company wants to ease broadband prices to maintain the momentum of 21,000 sign-ups a week.

But it also needs to help the internet providers using its network to compete better with cable. Cable companies are charging 25 a month, and winning market shares of up to 80 per cent where they operate. Providers using BT network are typically charging 27 or 28 a month.

The 6p for an hour plan is more defensive. BT wants to make life more difficult for cut-price rivals taking advantage of carrier pre-selection a new technology that allows a customer to change their telecoms supplier just by signing a form.

When similar technology was introduced in France it wiped 16 per cent from France Toms market share in a year. Carphone Warehouse, the retailer, which has already launched a service, has signed up 31,000 customers in two months.

Yet it is easy to get overexcited. In both cases, cost-cutting something the company is expert at means the price reductions should be affordable. Unlike France Tom, competition is nothing new to BT. It has maintained an 81 per cent share in residential usage after nearly 20 years.

BT does face other problems. There is no revenue growth from mobile phone use and the yield at 3.5 per cent is low. There are worries about the health of the pension fund, but alarmist FRS17 deficits of 9 billion are exaggerated and BT already contributes 200 million a year extra. These handicaps are well known, and while they might put off a buyer, investors should not run scared as new competitors to the company emerge. Hold.

New Look

IF ONLY New Look shares were as fashionable as the combat trousers and crop tops they sell.

While New Looks teenage ranges may be cheap, the equity stock trades on a 30 per cent discount to the rest of the sector and observers are inclined to look for the bad news in any statement made by the company.

Yesterday was no exception. The shares fell 15p to 223p as New Look confirmed that it would meet full-year profit expectations and said sales excluding the impact of new space had risen 7.7 per cent in the 52 weeks to March 29.

What spooked investors was the revelation that underlying sales growth had slowed to just 1.5 per cent in recent weeks while the gross margin had fallen by 0.4 percentage points.

New Look blamed a slowdown in the retail environment and a move by customers to buy more clothes in the January sales than in the run-up to Christmas. The group also said it was up against very strong comparatives from 2002.

But New Look is confident about its prospects. Profits for the year just ended are expected to come in at about 84 million, a healthy 34 per cent increase over the 2002 numbers. In 2004, analysts expect the company to make about 100 million, delivering earnings per share of 31.7p.

Consumers are undoubtedly spending less but New Look could find itself more protected from the vagaries of the market than some of its rivals.

The company is working on a rejig of its portfolio, which involves expanding a number of stores and modernising smaller more old-fashioned ones. Both moves are delivering a strong uplift in sales.

New Look is on a prospective multiple of 7.7 versus the sector average of ten. It is yielding about 4 per cent, compared with the sectors 4.5 per cent. Consumers look more likely to use a value-conscious retailer than many of its peers. Hold.

Carillion

CARILLION, the construction and services company, picked up the latest in a string of road maintenance contracts yesterday worth up to 160 million. The contract, for Surrey County Council, shows how construction companies such as Carillion can expect to grow revenue by 10 per cent this year, despite the gloomy times.

Since its demerger from Tarmac, Carillion has become adept at securing new-style maintenance contracts and has cast off the bad old ways of its construction heritage. Now 80 per cent of its revenue comes from just 20 key clients. Customers are spread across the public and private sector and include Asda, Arlington, the office park developer, and Network Rail.

Ostensibly this stands Carillion in good stead. There are signs of weakness in the commercial property sector, which will take away one of Carillions sources of revenue. But, if cutbacks on capital expenditure become more widespread, longtrumpeted public sector spending on roads, the railways, hospitals and schools should emerge to fill the gap.

Carillions share price has suffered from negative sentiment towards the sector, caused primarily by Ameys collapse and concerns over the PFI process. But the company has survived Network Rails decision to take some maintenance contracts back in-house and accounting issues are not a concern. A strong relationship with the UK Highways Agency and a burgeoning PPP portfolio overseas will add to the 5 billion forward order book.

The shares trade on a p/e ratio of seven times, which is average, and with a good geographical and business mix it looks more resilient than sector rivals. Buy.

tempus@thetimes.co.uk

Irritating but not life threatening and guess lower priced mean more traffic and business over time


ains


BT must cut internet fee to rivals
Jonathan Prynn, Evening Standard 4 April 2003

T has come under attack from telecoms regulator David Edmonds for the wholesale prices it charges other operators for unmetered internet access.


Edmonds ordered BT to slash its wholesale prices by 17% and refund rivals such as Energis and Cable & Wireless for excess charges levied since December 2001. This could mean lower charges for consumers using dial-up internet services.


The company said the move would cost it between 10m and 15m for the backdated refunds and a similar amount annually from now on. BT shares fell 3 1/4p to 169 3/4p in early trading.


The order, which follows a two-year investigation, applies to narrow-band access to the internet.


Other operators were effectively being overcharged for BT's ' routeing' system - the equivalent of points at a railway junction - which directs calls around the BT network.


Edmonds said: 'When Oftel required BT to introduce a wholesale unmetered internet access service, BT introduced a number of additional measures to support the new services and which were included in the charge to other operators.'


However, technological improvements made by December 2001 meant that these measures were no longer needed, Edmonds said. As a result he plans 'to order BT to reduce its wholesale unmetered internet access prices by 17%, which represents the costs of the now unnecessary measures'. He added: 'These savings could be passed on by other operators to their customers.'


The move will benefit about 10 million internet users, the vast majority of whom do not use BT as their service provider.


Edmonds said: 'Oftel's action will ensure that operators and consumers pay a fair price for unmetered internet access from BT and reflects the relevant costs that BT incurs to provide the service.'


The move came the day after BT announced its second cut in wholesale broadband prices in a year.




2003 Associated Newspapers Ltd.

BT unveils community broadband scheme

London, April 4 2003, (netimperative)



by Susie Harwood

BT Wholesale has confirmed that it will go ahead with the full national launch of its ADSL Exchange Activate project aimed at bringing broadband internet to small local communities.


The news comes shortly after BT announced plans to extend the reach of high-speed internet access to more than 90% of small homes and businesses, up from 67%. It plans to do this by revealing new trigger levels for around 600 exchanges that need to be activated by customer demand in order for BT to upgrade the exchange.

However, Bruce Stanford, products director at BT Wholesale, said that even with this new initiative, there would still be gaps to fill in, which is where the Activate project comes in.

The scheme involves a sponsoring body that has a social, development or commercial interest in bringing broadband to specific areas. The sponsor pays a lump sum to get groups of 30 customers connected to ADSL equipment for a three-year period. The first 30 connections will cost 45,000, with subsequent groups of 30 on the same exchange costing 30,000.

Stanford said that trials for the Exchange Activate product have been well received. Trial areas include Corwen in Wales, where partnering organisations that have provided funding and are delivering the service include Denbighshire County Council in conjunction with eCommerce consultants.