SDSL 'spells end' for BT leased lines
Does SDSL service spell the end for BT's leased-line business?
ISP Easynet has launched the UK's first Symmetric DSL (SDSL) product for business users, which could "spell the end" for BT's leased-line business.
CEO David Rowe said SDSL would eat into BT's leased-lines business. "We think our 2Mbps SDSL will be about half the price of BT's leased lines, which will be very attractive to businesses."
Mark Blowers, senior researcher at analyst Butler Group, agreed it would "spell the end" for BT's dedicated circuits. "The writing is on the wall for leased lines," he said. "When other operators follow suit it will erode that market.
"Businesses will be interested in the synchronous product because they need to shift large files up and downstream."
The incumbent attracted criticism from rival operators when it said it wanted to establish profitability in ADSL before looking at other flavours of DSL technology.
Rivals accused it of trying to protect its leased-line revenues. Thomas Morrison, European ISS manager at storage specialist ATL, said he would consider switching to the synchronous service. "If they can guarantee continuous service, with full SLAs, then I would be interested."
Morrison added he would want guarantees on contention ratios before committing himself.
Easynet said it did not have set contention ratios in its network. "Should network use exceed 50 per cent of capacity, we would upgrade it," said a spokeswoman.
SLAs for business lines are available at £595 annually. The ISP is planning to offer voice as part of the SDSL product, but not until late summer. Voice services require a synchronous connection. "If you can't prioritise voice traffic in both directions you can't offer voice," said Blowers.
It is also working on a 4Mbps SDSL product, but must first reach agreement about the types of specs that can be run in the tie cables that connect to BT's backbone.
"There is a gap between 4Mbps and 45Mbps services for businesses," said Rowe. "The products aren't there but the demand is. Companies are being offered the same kind of bandwidth when they all have different needs."