A small UK ISP faces down British Telecom

A SMALL VILLAGE'S local Internet service provider (ISP) is in good spirits as the giant British Telecom (BT) agreed to change the way it releases information about premises connected to its cabinets.

The victory by the town's ISP might encourage broadband deployment in rural areas of the UK.

Rutland Telecom, which made headlines earlier this year after providing 40Mbps broadband to the village of Lyddington, suggested that the change from releasing information on a case-by-case to a per-region basis will allow other small ISPs to benefit.

"For the first time in UK history the data linking premises to BT cabinets will be revealed, and can be exploited to bring the benefits of next-generation access to rural communities which suffer poor broadband speeds," the firm said in a blog post.

"Rutland Telecom, the UK's smallest 'unbundler', has now benefited the industry in getting this vital data published."

The change means that small ISPs can gain access to far more information about properties connected to a BT cabinet in a given region to help plan broadband rollouts.

Rutland Telecom added that BT Openreach had stalled for too long in releasing the data, and that it represented a conflict of interest.

"BT Openreach had previously refused to supply it on the grounds of data protection. BT has access to this data itself for its own fibre-to-the-cabinet ambitions. It is effectively a competitor at the same time as being a supplier, " the company said.

"This is a situation which we have always maintained represents a conflict of interest and is potentially discriminatory."

However, BT claimed that it has always provided these details under the terms laid out by industry regulators.

"We have been providing our sub-loop unbundling customers with details of the premises connected to our fibre cabinets on a case-by-case basis. By doing so, Ofcom has been satisfied that we have been meeting our regulatory obligations," said BT.

"Following discussions with the industry, we will now be providing sub-loop unbundling customers with this data on a regional basis to help smaller players better plan for their broadband rollouts."

Rutland Telecom claimed that it had been pushing for the information to be released for over eight months, and that the change had come about only after a meeting with BT Openreach, Ofcom and the Office of the Telecoms Adjudicator.

"As a tiny operator we are very proud of this achievement. We are pleased that BT finally agreed to remove one of the obstacles to letting us bring the benefits of next-generation access to rural communities," the firm said.

"Especially considering that BT has neither the intention nor the ability of providing such solutions in tiny communities like Lyddington."

However, the situation is still not quite to Rutland Telecom's liking, and the ISP has queried BT's statement that it will be "a few months before this data is available".

"BT illogically linked fibre rollout to delays in supplying the data, even though agreement has been reached to publish it. BT Openreach is saying it will take months to download the data to a CSV file," the company said.

"It is excuses like this that suggest more evidence for obstruction and delays by BT. It is either that or incompetence in not understanding their own network." µ