Flat rate net access: ISPs in fear of 'Son of Friaco'

ISPs doubt that Oftel's latest attempt to force BT to accelerate local loop unbundling will have any meaningful effect.

Oftel today announced new measures to open the internet up for unmetered access, but BT and ISPs have questioned whether this will become a reality soon. The new rules - called ST Friaco - come into force from 26 February. But, until February 2003, BT will not be obliged to meet every request for ST Friaco. ISPs fear BT will use this as an excuse to continue to slow down the unbundling of local loop access. Matt Peacock, communications director for AOL UK, said: "It took a year and a half to get Friaco," he said. "BT dragged their feet over that, they dragged their feet over everything else. They had better not drag their feet over ST Friaco, but the precedent is not good. Constitutionally, institutionally, and at every turn, BT resists change." Richard Sweet, regulatory manager at Thus, echoed some of Peacock's disappointment in more moderate terms. "It would have been so much better if we had had it twelve months ago. The past twelve months have been very difficult for the alternative telecoms providers. There is also concern about whether there will be enough capacity." This could lead to problems, if ISPs feel that BT is slow to respond to their demands. The roll-out of high-speed DSL internet access has enraged AOL and Freeserve, who had new customers connected to the service at a twentieth of the rate that BT has connected customers to its own DSL service, Openworld. AOL and Freeserve have threatened legal action over DSL, and a similar situation may arise with ST Friaco. A spokesman for BT welcomed the ruling, but warned that BT would find it "challenging" to meet the bandwidth demands which unmetered internet access produce. "Unmetered users place an enormous demand on the network. We are pleased that the regulator has realised that there are dangers from unmetered internet access, in terms of network quality," he said.