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Michael Dell puts boot into BT ADSL plans

Makes a change from AMD

Michael Dell, the computer magnate, reckons BT is charging too much for ADSL and is taking too long to roll out its services. Join the queue. Unlike mere mortals, the Texan gazillionaire doesn't have to stand in line: he gets to meet Sir Peter Bonfield, BT chief executive, and tell it straight to his face. Bonfield and Dell met up in London four weeks ago, according to Chris Ayres of The Times, who got hold of the scoop. Well that blows Dell's chances of becoming a major supplier to BT, Britain's biggest purchaser of PCs. It stumps up more than £60 million a year to buy kit from Computacenter. Or is Michael Dell turning into a bit of a loose cannon? In the same trip to London, last month, he criticised AMD's "flaky" Athlon. BT declined to confirm or deny that the Bonfield-Dell meeting took place. But a BT "source" defended the company's ADSL plans. "What we are doing is the most ambitious roll-out of ADSL services in the world," The Times reports. US ADSL charges - typically $40 per month - do not include Internet access fees and equipment costs, unlike UK ADSL trial fees - typically £50 per month, the BT source said. ®

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