Wanadoo and PlusNet go for high-speed LLU broadband

As BT gets a tongue lashing from watchdog

Wanadoo has announced the fruits of its experiments with local loop unbundling (LLU), including a new speed boost to rival BT's mooted increase.

Wanadoo revealed today that from next month, its customers in LLU areas will be able to access broadband speeds of up to 8Mbps for £14.99 for six months. The rest of Wanadoo's non-LLU users will have to be content with up to 2Mbps with the promise of 8Mbps "when [it] becomes available", the ISP said.

Currently, around 12 per cent of the UK population live in Wanadoo's LLU areas, in Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, London and Manchester. Within the next year, the France Telecom-owned company hopes to extend its LLU coverage to around 40 per cent of the UK.

Wanadoo will also be trialling speeds up of to 24Mbps with an eye to launching even faster products over its LLU network in the future, the company has announced.

PlusNet has also revealed its plans for super high-speed broadband, with the ISP planning to offer LLU customers speeds of up to 24Mbps from December, while customers in areas of Cornwall, Greater London, Northern Ireland, South Glamorgan and Strathclyde will be able to experience up to 8Mbps from 30 November, to be followed by the rest of PlusNet's customers from spring next year.

While a growing number of ISPs are unveiling their LLU offerings, BT has been getting a telling off from the telecoms watchdog over delays and operational issues pertaining to its own efforts to unbundled local loops.

Despite price cuts and the creation of a new network access unit, BT is still not delivering the goods over LLU, the Office of the Telecoms Adjudicator has found.

In an update on the UK's LLU landscape, telecoms adjudicator Peter Black wrote: "The operational problems reported over the last couple of months continue to persist and are giving me significant cause for concern."

He added: "After many months of steady progress BT, the OTA and the LLUOs (local loop unbundling operators) are disappointed at the current setbacks and are focused on getting back on track."

ISP Bulldog has also put the boot in, complaining that the telco's problems with LLU have translated into its own customer service problems.

Black, however, maintains that LLU can and will be achieved in the UK.

He wrote: "The operational problems the industry is experiencing confirm there is still some way to go before we consolidate the market breakthrough we all aspire to.

"However; given the strong assurances from Steve Robertson and his team, I remain confident that the industry will deliver LLU successfully."