SDSL broadband to undercut leased lines

BT's expansion should lead to cheaper 2Mbit/s links for businesses

Cheaper alternatives to 2Mbit/s E1 leased lines may soon be more widely available, with BT set to increase the number of exchanges supporting Symmetric DSL (SDSL) services to around 180 over the next few months.

BT has not announced which exchanges will be upgraded, but they are likely to be in major towns and cities where most potential business customers are located.

"We can't confirm details or the business case for which exchanges will be converted at the moment, but we are looking to carry out the work fairly soon," said a spokesman for BT Wholesale.

Unlike Asymmetric DSL, SDSL can provide the same bandwidth upstream as downstream - an advantage for file transfers.

BT's 2Mbit/s SDSL will be leased wholesale to other service providers at a fixed price of £200 per month, plus a connection fee of £450 per customer.

"The main advantages of SDSL are cost and flexibility, but it will be interesting to see if BT bothers to provide customers with bandwidth options or just 2Mbit/s," said Tim Johnson of analyst firm Ovum.

SDSL links should be far cheaper than the E1 private virtual circuits that most corporates currently rent, although exact prices will depend on the profit margins of service providers.

Leased lines cost £6,000 to £15,000 a year, but provide dedicated bandwidth backed by service level agreements (SLAs) guaranteeing data rates and availability, and compensation if terms are not met.

SDSL bandwidth is shared rather than dedicated, with contention rates up to 10:1, and SLAs are rarely offered.

Easynet already sells 512kbit/s, 1Mbit/s and 2Mbit/s SDSL services in city areas including London, Manchester and Birmingham. The 2Mbit/s version costs £300 per month plus a £950 connection fee, but no SLA is available.

"The price points are a lot more friendly [than E1's], especially with so many firms looking at their IT strategy and trying to justify costs on various areas of their network," said Easynet's Martin Saunders.

Some providers that use Fibernet's network, rather than BT's, do offer SLAs.

Examples are Star Internet with its 2Mbit/s SDSL service in Leeds, which costs £575 per month plus a £750 connection fee; and Mistral's 2Mbit/s service in areas of London, Manchester and Bristol, which costs £417 per month with an £850 connection fee.