BT urged to make wholesale bandwidth access more affordable
Internet service provider (ISP) Entanet has called on BT to make wholesale bandwidth more affordable as the UK strives to improve its superfast broadband network.
Neil Watson, head of service operations at Entanet, said the current charges levied by BT Wholesale are preventing smaller ISPs from maintaining their own superfast services and support this emerging technology.
He observed that in the past, bandwidth of 330Mbps would have been able to support 330 customers using 1Mbps connections, whereas nowadays it may only be enough for one person using the latest fibre-to-the-premises services.
According to the Entanet representative, it is vital that BT moves to address this issue, adding that intervention from regulator Ofcom may even be necessary.
Mr Watson warned: "Smaller market players are going to struggle to keep up with capacity demands, which will lead to a lack of viable competition within the market, restricting consumer choice and potentially leading to monopolistic behaviour."
This comes in the same week that culture secretary Jeremy Hunt vowed to bolster UK broadband services further in order to deliver Europe's best superfast network across the country by 2015.
