BT forced to unbundle local loop

Oftel has outlined how BT will have to unbundle the local loop - breaking its historic monopoly on the last-mile, copper line infrastructure - to speed the rollout of high-speed Internet access services.

The telecoms watchdog published its 'Access to Bandwidth: Proposals for Action' statement yesterday, which set out what it calls a 'twin-track' approach: as BT upgrades its network, other operators will be entitled to use the infrastructure "at fair prices" (the so-called Option 4), and after 1 July 2001, competing operators will have direct access to BT's network to carry out upgrades themselves (Option 2).

BT and other companies will almost certainly base future offerings on ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), or other flavours of DSL which allow an 'always-on' service for large amounts of data and simultaneous voice calls.

Oftel director general, David Edmonds, said: "This document removes regulatory uncertainty. Oftel will ensure that services offered over this upgraded network are offered at wholesale prices, and on a timely basis, to service providers who can then offer their own products and services at the same time as BT roll out theirs."

But Erol Ziya co-founder of the Campaign for Unmetered Telecoms (CUT), said CUT had encouraged the regulator to choose a simpler option. "CUT has always been pro unbundling - the issue for us is how it is unbundled," he said. "You just have to look at the situation with Localtel and BT, where the smaller operator bought wholesale network capacity and BT was sluggish with processing the requests. This is indicative of how the first phase of this roll out will result."

In a prepared statement, BT said: "Oftel recognises BT's plans represent a massive leap forward, placing the UK in a world-leading position."