ISPs struggle with ADSL2+ rollout

News from the trenches is that BT wholesale (who supply ISPs in the UK with DSL access) has delayed activation for 440 exchanges across the country to be upgraded to ADSL2+ (basically the 21CN rollout). It has also canned 320 from their schedule all together!

This means that companies such as Enta who have invested a lot in the new BT platform will now have to wait even longer before they can start selling it nationwide. At the moment BT have only enabled 106 exchanges so the majority of the industry will have to wait longer than originally hoped before people can start to use ADSL2+. There is news that even the niche ISP Andrews & Arnold have their own problems with the new system as it can’t recognise the ‘&’ in their name meaning they can’t order on the new platform.

Just goes to show that even now how many issues arise even though that DSL is no longer a new technology and how far behind BT are. Fluidata have been selling ADSL2+ for 18-months now and has access to OVER 1200 exchanges across the country reaching 17.5 million premises. Also it manages 20 Mb/s down and 2.6 Mb/s upstream whereas BT will only be able to manage 16 Mb/s down and 1.3 Mb/s up. Not to beat my own drum but a bit of brilliant foresight back in 2004 to create primary relationships with LLU carriers across the UK and not focus on BT as a main supplier.