BT throws its weight behind ADSL

BT has strengthened its commitment to asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) technology with a multimillion-pound order for equipment from Fujitsu and Alcatel.

The contract covers 400 exchanges across the country serving up to 6 million households and businesses.

The investment is to be delivered from £5bn already set aside with which BT aims to revolutionise the communications infrastructure in the UK.

BT CEO, Sir Peter Bonfield, claimed that the roll-out of the deal would be aggressive.

ADSL technology is set to improve dramatically the transmission of data over telephone lines, but BT has been criticised for being slow off the mark to implement the new standard.

Robin Duke-Woolley, senior consultant at Schema, said that the timing of the deal looked liked BT was angling for concessions from Oftel, which is soon to rule on BT's control of the "local loop" - the lines between the local exchange and the customer that BT still controls.

"BT may well be telling Oftel that if they supply local loop ADSL technology, they want to get some kind of favourable ruling from Oftel about the break-up of the local loop," he said.