Resellers can exploit long wait for BT investment

BT’s billion pound investment in super-fast fibre optic broadband (see MicroScope Online, 15 July) has been welcomed by the channel, but BT-watchers say they are under no illusions that they will be waiting a long time to see the results.

BT committed on Tuesday to opening talks with Ofcom to create what it described as a “supportive and enduring regulatory environment”, something BT believes is essential if the investment is to take place.

BT is asking for current barriers to investment to be removed and for investors in fibre to be guaranteed a fair rate of return for their shareholders, among other things.

John Carter, managing director at BT distributor DMSL, believed BT would face no hurdles with the regulators, describing the implementation of BT’s plans as essential given the growing rate of uptake of bandwidth hungry services.

“If BT doesn’t do it, the government has to encourage investment in infrastructure otherwise UK plc will start to lag behind the rest of the world,” he explained. “The government hasn’t any option [but to agree], as BT is the only company in a position to be able to do this.”

Carter pointed out that resellers would see few opportunities to sell services around BT’s fibre-based ecosystem until it was fully in place.

“They have to make money today; the best thing to do is to watch it and be prepared to take advantage of it,” he advised.

Ian Roberts, CEO at On-Communications, which has just launched its new ‘Diverse Backup’ business continuity WiMAX solution, aimed at providing always-on connectivity across the infamous ‘last mile’, agreed that rollout was some years off.

He suggested the investment could curtail parallel investment by other providers until BT’s plans become clearer.

 “Guys like Cable and Wireless and Virgin will be the ones asking what it means for their business model in the short term,” he said.

Meanwhile, a war of words has broken out between Tiscali and BT over availability of 21CN services after wholesale ISP Entanet launched what it described as the “first” ADSL2+ services based on BT Wholesale Broadband Connect.

Tiscali Business Services product and marketing director, Lance Spencer, said: “Tiscali launched its ADSL2+ service nationally at the beginning of the year and our partners have been selling these services to customers since January. So as well as being months ahead we have significant footprint of availability.”