ISDN users face long wait for ADSL

BT has told ISDN customers who want an upgrade to asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) that they can't have the service until early next year, while customers with no ISDN connection are already being signed up.

BT said the problem, which has infuriated Home Highway customers, is due to a combination of technical and administrative issues. It said a method for smoothly transferring ISDN customers to ADSL is still being developed, and won't be ready until early 2001.

One irate vnunet.com reader said: "I am told by BT that the reason I am delayed is that I am a Home Highway customer and must go to the back of the queue, as analogue phone users are being given preference even if I pre-ordered.

"So I asked them to remove Home Highway [and] return me to an analogue line so that I could then apply afresh for my ASDL line. No-can-do, they tell me.

"How fair is this? Is this the way to reward customer loyalty? I am now wondering what will happen if/when I eventually get BTopenworld installed - whether I will have to go to the back of the queue when the next technology arrives."

When contacted by vnunet.com, a BT spokesman said that analogue customers were not receiving priority and apologised that our reader had been told that he must 'go to the back of the queue'.

"It sounds like it should be a simple process but it isn't," he said. "In this country we can't run ADSL over ISDN lines [unlike Germany] and it's not just a case of disabling the ISDN line and installing an ADSL connection. All the billing, order handling and order managing services have to be changed at the same time."

"We're working with our suppliers on a new process to enable this transition and we're very disappointed it wasn't ready by September, but the fact is it is still in trials and simply isn't ready yet. I'm confident it will be ready early next year," he added.

BT is currently facing a number of headaches with its home ADSL service.

• To read about BTopenworld's IP addressing problem, click here
• To read vnunet.com's Essential guide to ADSL and cable modem services, click here