BT trials SDSL broadband in London
By Rene Millman [12-09-2002]
Full commercial service due next year
BT has finally detailed plans to roll out Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line (SDSL) broadband internet services as a trial in 20 exchanges at the end of the month.
The move comes ahead of a full commercial service which is expected to start from the middle of next year.
As revealed by vnunet.com in July, BT is to work with broadband service provider Bulldog Communications, one of its most ferocious critics, to run an SDSL trial in London from late autumn.
Richard Greco, chief executive at Bulldog, told vnunet.com at the time that his company had been in negotiations with BT for several months before an Oftel ruling forced BT to offer interconnections from its network to rivals'.
The initial trial will test two products running at 256Kbps and 2Mbps. Wholesale pricing for the two products will be £75 and £200 per month respectively.
SDSL differs from Asymmetric DSL as it uploads and downloads data at the same speeds simultaneously.
Industry analysts have argued that this means it can effectively compete with lucrative leased line business, although BT disagrees.
Rebecca Webster, head of broadband marketing at BT Wholesale, insisted that far from cannibalising BT's leased line business, the two technologies will be complementary to one another.
"We don't think that by introducing SDSL everyone will migrate from leased line to SDSL and market growth will stop in the leased line business," she said.
Webster admitted that there is a small overlap between the leased line and SDSL businesses, but maintained that they are "two very different product sets".
The trial will start with SDSL services delivered through 20 exchanges in London. In December BT Wholesale will extend the trial to up to 50 exchanges including locations in Manchester and Yorkshire.
The service will support multiple Time Division Multiplexing voice channels and IP data traffic concurrently over a single copper pair using Global Standard High-Bit-Rate DSL technology.
Easynet, Bulldog and Star Internet already offer SDSL services in the UK.
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