UK LLU breaks 7 million unbundled lines
The number of unbundled broadband connections in the UK has broken through the 7 million mark, making up around one third of all broadband connections according to data from the Office of the Telecommunications Adjudicator. The 7.03 million connections shows a massive surge since Ofcom overhauled the local loop unbundling (LLU) rules back in 2005 forcing BT to break off a new division called Openreach to manage the local telephone loop and provide equality of access between other companies and BT.
There are over 30 different companies providing unbundled services across the UK which has helped boost competition in the market. One clear example of the benefits of this is the changes in costs of broadband. At the end of 2005 a broadband service cost on around £23.50 a month (excluding VAT) but this has decreased to an average of £13.31 today.
Comments
So five years the price has halved. That's only a benefit if you're thinking short term. In the long term it wipes out any real hope of investment and leaves us mired in the copper age.
£13.50pcm is not enough to pay someone to lay fibre to your premises. Never was, never will be.
My thoughts exactly, whilst nice for the consumer in terms of choice and price its sucked the life out of the market.
"lowest common denominator"
"At the end of 2005 a broadband service cost on around £23.50 a month "
And not many years earlier than that, a 2Mbit service cost around that price, and was truly unlimited. Then along came BTwholesale's Capacity Based Charging, and Oftel/Ofcon nodded it through, despite it being perfectly obvious where it would lead.
And if O2's latest dogs breakfast is the start of a trend (the move from land-grab to "make some money"), the LLU cherry-pickers are headed the same way.
Here's to the future of Digital Brian, 'cos Digital Britain hasn't got one.
Im also proud to say my broadband is LLU and also proud to say i pay more for it than BT Retail charge for their broadband service. Also proud i aint paying BT more than i have to for their new capped FTTC nonsense. Long live LLU
But how long will LLU live?
Take up doesnt seem to be slowing anymore than any other services have in the last couple of years, infact theres more sellers of it than ever. I also suspect at some point in the future Ofcom will step in and make BT do some type of FTTC LLU, that will be nice, a proper FTTC service without caps or throttles.
Doesn't FTTC use virtual LLU? If that is the case then it should be easier to switch providers.
Urm FTTC is available to LLU operators, just it does not figure high in their retail offerings.
Multiple GigE links from VDSL2 cab to exchange, and minimum to zero contention on these.
I think someone is confusing BT Wholesale WBC products, with Openreach GEA fibre products.
- andrew
- over 10 years ago
I know FTTC is available to LLU operators but to provide the exact equivalent of what they do now it would have to be subloop wouldn't it? I can't imagine many doing that
Anyone know how many properties/lines have access to one or more LLU providers?
O2 only have a 10% share of the 7 million.
How many exchanges are unbundled and what percentage is that of all the exchanges in the UK.
I would imagine the percentage is quite small.
I live in deepest rural Norfolk; so nothing for me
I was on O2 LLU from my exchange, but foolishly moved to a cheaper deal with plus.net which was not LLU. This meant moving over to the BT DLM system which frankly doesn't work well on my line as keeps constantly reducing my bandwidth. I am now in the process of moving back to the O2 LLU system.
O2 LLU gave me 1.6MB download, but Plus net (with BT DLM) could only give me around 0.9MB.
At the end of 2005 a broadband service cost on around £23.50 a month (excluding VAT) but this has decreased to an average of £13.31 today.
As the exchange here can only manage to put out between 0.7 and 1.5mb, why should we pay anymore for a dismal service
I am proud to say that my line is one of the 7 million. TalkTalk have just unbundled my exchange on 9th of August, and I joined straight after. The first LLU in my Market 1 exchange.