ISDN users ignore ADSL

IT managers are reluctant to trade in their ISDN lines for ADSL, a senior BT executive has admitted.

Despite offering businesses the option to end their contracts with BT Retail for £100, including the ADSL installation fee (previously £150), BTopenworld has persuaded "relatively few" firms to switch, conceded Tony Harris, senior vice president for business customers at the telco.

"The numbers are relatively few, only around a thousand or so, even though there's such a compelling cost reason to switch," he said. "If you're even a moderate ISDN user, you can save over £1,000 a year per line. You would think that would have created a stampede from ISDN to ADSL but it hasn't."

Zeta Tsatsani, senior analyst at Ovum, said: "It doesn't surprise me. ISDN provides a reasonable speed and most people haven't been using it for long enough, or know enough about alternatives, to become frustrated with it."