BROADBAND4BRITAIN

PRESS RELEASE

28th May 2002

STATEMENT IN RESPONSE TO BT ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT ADSL DEMAND MAPPING - 19/06/02

Inflated Broadband Exchange 'Trigger Points' Will Hamper Demand, Says BB4B

People's Broadband Campaign Calls For Fair Play From BT

The Broadband4Britain Campaign - www.broadband4britain.co.uk - today broadly welcomed the latest initiative from BT, whereby the service provider will allow consumers, pressure groups and service providers to highlight ADSL demand on an interactive map. However, BB4B strongly challenges the exchange upgrade trigger points as outlined in the release.

BT's Position

To date, BT has either upgraded or 'earmarked for upgrade' 1100 exchanges. Almost all of these are in densely populated urban areas. Since April BT has surveyed an additional 300 exchanges to establish the costs of upgrade. According to BT, over the course of the summer months an additional 700 exchanges will be surveyed. Based on the first 300 surveys, BT estimates that the economic exchange 'trigger points' will be between 200 and 400 broadband users. BT plans to provide an interactive map of these and other exchanges, complete with trigger point figures, and allow consumers and others to register demand.

The Painful Truth

Broadband4Britain's own figures, confirmed by leading analysts and consulting firm Ovum, establish a much lower trigger point for a typical exchange, at just 50 users. BB4B has labeled this trigger point 'FlashPoint 50'.

BB4B Campaign Manager, Andy Williams comments - "Whilst we broadly welcome any initiative from BT that puts power into the hands of consumers, we fear that this may turn into an exercise in demand quenching, rather than demand creation. We know that the actual FlashPoint is much, much lower than 200 users, and we once again question BT's appetite for rolling out ADSL beyond its comfort zone of affluent, big city consumers."

People Power

BB4B is currently recruiting broadband 'Local Heroes' whom it will help to launch broadband demand creation campaigns within semi-urban and non-urban communities. BB4B will publish its own demand map based on the outcomes of these campaigns.

Andy Williams - "There are very many individuals out there who are deeply suspicious of BT and its' reasoning for slow Broadband rollout. It is a fact that local exchange Broadband enablement can be fulfilled relatively cheaply and with excellent returns on investment."