It's official - there are now half a million unbundled telephone lines in the UK and that number is growing by 20,000 new lines a week. So says BT Openreach - BT's access services division - which reckons the LLU market is beginning to mature.

With nearly twenty operators providing unbundled services from almost 1,000 local exchanges across the UK today, BT reckons LLU is "firmly established as a critical component of the highly competitive broadband market".

"Hitting this half million milestone confirms that the LLU market in the UK is truly coming into its own," said Openreach's Anne Heal, adding that wholesale price cuts had helped give LLU a kick up the backside.

Today's half million milestone is a far cry from the UK's first attempt to introduce competition in the UK. Take this story from 2002 - when there were just 150 (one hundred and fifty) unbundled lines in the UK.

Our favourite LLU story, though, comes from 2000, when there were fears that there would be so much demand for LLU that space in BT exchanges would be limited. The answer, according to official documents from the Electoral Reform Services (ERS), was easy.

Allocation of space would be decided on the throw of a dice. A crap shoot. For LLU. How apt. ®

Related stories

• Ofcom tells BT to buck up on unbundling (11 December 2007)
• BT promises to improve local loop services for rivals (27 October 2006)
• LLU taking off, but lift off slower than hoped (5 September 2006)
• O2 says Be mine for £50m (20 June 2006)
• Spiders attack Manchester phone network (17 June 2006)
• Carphone loses broadband price cut battle (13 June 2006)
• C&W sets sights on one million wholesale LLU lines (9 June 2006)
• Openreach cuts wholesale broadband charges (7 June 2006)
• Line unbundling nears 500,000 milestone (5 June 2006)
• BT's 'honeymoon period' nearing end (24 May 2006)