BT gives Joe Public a say on ADSL

BT has set up an online scheme which, it says, will give both service providers and the public a say in the roll-out plans for ADSL.

The site will enable people to vote to have their exchanges upgraded to DSL. When a large enough number has voted, BT will make the upgrade, if it is technically possible.

BT's chief executive, Ben Verwaayen, said: "This scheme is hugely important in testing demand and making sure we get broadband out there without delay. Everyone who wants to get the benefits of broadband should register. Every vote counts."

He said the website will encourage users to log their interest in having their exchange upgraded. It will also show the trigger point at which their local exchange will be upgraded, and the number of users already interested.

"This sort of information will give service providers a powerful tool to target marketing drives for DSL in each region," Verwaayen said.

Paul Reynolds, BT Wholesale's chief executive, said: "People have been claiming there is sufficient demand for broadband in their areas if only they had a way to channel their interest to us. Now we have created just such a scheme to do that.

"Businesses and consumers can register their interest with service providers who will record it on the broadband registration database. The demand and the target levels will be clearly visible to all and will help individuals, communities, local authorities and service providers to have a direct impact on broadband roll out," Reynolds added.

BT Wholesale's scheme will go live on 1 July and will record firm demand for broadband at every exchange in the country. It will also publish the threshold at which the level of demand makes individual exchanges commercially viable for broadband upgrade.

At launch, trigger levels ranging from 200 to 500 user registrations will be published for more than 300 of 500 exchanges reviewed since April, to establish individual costs of ADSL deployment and operation.

For the remaining exchanges in that review further work needs to be done to work out costs before a threshold is set.

Threshold levels for these exchanges - plus a further 400 exchanges - will be published in phases between July and September.

"The move will also help BT reach its target of one million broadband connections by summer 2003. So far, more than 250,000 customers have been connected to ADSL," said Reynolds."BT Wholesale has enabled 1,115 exchanges, serving 66 per cent of Britain's households and 73 per cent of current internet users," he added.

However, BT pointed out that when the database goes live, registration would not guarantee future ADSL service, since individual customer lines would be subject to line survey and distance constraints on ADSL availability.