WorldCom challenges BT over SurfTime

British Telecom's plan to deliver SurfTime, its unmetered internet service, may be scuppered by a complaint filed by MCI WorldCom. BT's rival wants to rollout an alternative version of SurfTime to ISPs.

British Telecom's plan to deliver SurfTime, its unmetered internet service, may be scuppered by a complaint filed by MCI WorldCom. BT's rival wants to rollout an alternative version of SurfTime to ISPs.

If Oftel upholds Worldcom's complaint, it could open the way for a raft of similar services from rival carriers. WorldCom director Greg Mook said that competition to BT would "drive down internet prices for both business and residential users".

WorldCom has accused BT of failing to offer a wholesale version of SurfTime which would enable other operators to create their own versions. A spokesperson for Oftel said that BT's SurfTime would have to comply with the requirements of its telecoms licence.

Dave Edmonds, director general at Oftel, said he will reach a decision by 1 June, as SurfTime is scheduled to be rolled out in the summer. BT claims that it is unable to offer WorldCom access to its network infrastructure as its current network will not be able to cope with the increase in traffic.

Currently, BT has plans to upgrade its exchanges with digital local exchanges by November. It said that this would allow it to separate all internet traffic generated by SurfTime and other unmetered access products.

But Richard McBride, of billing systems vendor Intec, believes that this debate over unmetered access is academic, as the industry is moving towards charging for content as opposed to bandwidth or metered pricing.

"The business market will probably pay for services such as information feeds and video conferencing services rather than bandwidth," he said.

First appeared in Network News