Easynet squares up to BT with wholesale broadband

LLU doors thrown wide open

By Tim Richardson, 13th December 2004

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Easynet is to go head-to-head with BT by providing wholesale broadband to telcos and ISPs at prices it claims are 30-35 per cent cheaper than its rival's.

Using its own kit installed in BT exchanges, Easynet is offering operators the chance to provide unbundled services direct to end users via its new LLUStream product.

Although the operator is looking to provide business-oriented broadband services, it is also in discussions with consumer ISPs, although the company declined to name any of those involved in negotiations.

So far, however, the local loop unbundling (LLU) operator has unbundled 240 of BT's local exchanges covering 700,000 businesses and some 4.4m homes.

Said David Rowe, CEO of Easynet, in a stock exchange announcement: "The market is at an inflection point with the imminent launch of new services across the copper network. This makes it the right time to open our network to other providers in competition with BT's [wholesale] IPStream and DataStream products.

"We are able to offer differentiated services, significant cost reductions and speeds of up to 8Mbps, rising to 18Mpbs when ADSL2+ becomes available following regulatory action. This is a great example of recent regulatory changes enabling genuine competition at the infrastructure level.

"The ultimate winners are consumers and businesses. They will get lower prices, faster speeds, better quality and access to the next generation of broadband services," he said. ®