BT urged to slash wholesale DSL prices by £10 a month

PlusNet has called on BT to cut the cost of its wholesale DSL service by £10 a month when the telco's CEO honours his pledge to make a "substantial cut in the cost of wholesale broadband services".

BT's Arsenal-supporting boss, Ben Verwaayen, made his promise a fortnight ago. He said he would return in a couple of weeks to flesh out plans to slash the cost of broadband which, he feels, will really get broadband off the ground.

The time is nearly up for Mr Verwaayen. And while BT still crunches through the figures Sheffield-based ISP, PlusNet, maintains that unless the wholesale price comes down to between £15-£18 a month service providers will be unable to meet a retail price of around £25 a month.

And it is this magic figure of £25 a month which many believe will trigger mass market demand for broadband.

"Meeting the mass-market consumer price point of £25 per month (inc VAT) will undoubtedly create significant demand for Broadband ADSL services," said Alistair Wyse, Technical Director for PlusNet.

"We want to see BT stimulate the market by cutting the monthly rental by at least £8 to £10, and lowering the activation fee to below the £25 mark," he said.

PlusNet has also said it will pass on any cost saving to customers when they are finally announced by BT.

Research published this week by point topic found that the UK has the most expensive wholesale and retail DSL in Europe.

The price of E49 (£29.99) per month set by BT Wholesale in the UK is more than twice as high as the E21 (£12.85) to E23 (£14.08) per month offered by Belgacom in Belgium and Telefonica in Spain, revealed the Point Topic research. ®

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BT to slash wholesale broadband costs