British Telecommunications Plc yesterday revealed the wholesale prices for its consumer ADSL offering, due to go live in April. The UKÆs incumbent carrier made a low-key announcement, arguing that it wants to avoid consumer confusion between wholesale and retail pricing, and the low profile has nothing to do with how comparatively expensive the offering is.
After an installation fee of 150 pounds ($240) per user, service providers will pay BT 35 pounds ($56) per subscriber per month. BT estimates this will result in a monthly retail fee of anything between 39 pounds ($62) and 48 pounds ($77), although it is likely some providers may offer access at cost or less to be subsidized with additional online services. A spokesperson said prices are likely to drop as demand rises, and there is the possibility of large ISPs buying discounted bulk lines from BT.
The consumer offering is split into two products, scaled-down versions of the already announced IPStream and Datastream enterprise products, named IPStream 500 and Datastream 500, aimed at ISPs and licensed carriers respectively. Contention ratios have been toned down from 20:1 to 50:1 for the consumer, with speeds of 500Kbps downstream and 256Kbps upstream. This means for every one port at the local exchange, up to 50 users are competing for bandwidth – at full capacity users would get 10Kbps from the IPStream 500 line.
BT is keen to claim that contention for cable modem internet access can be up to 200:1, and that its prices are comparable with some US operators. Specifically, BT said US West Inc charges around 54 pounds per month ($86) for an equivalent service, and that SBC Communications Inc charges 62 pounds ($99) per month, once installation and kit prices have been factored in. Regardless, in France, France Telecom SA sells direct to the consumer for the equivalent of $52 to $59 (using BTÆs calculations), so BT is certain to come in for criticism.
