1m unbundled lines

The independent Office of the Telecommunications Adjudicator (OTA) has announced that there are now one million unbundled lines.

When 1.5m lines have been unbundled (or April 2007 whichever comes first), BT Wholesale can set new pricing for DSL services, which means they are likely to plummet. This is good for the consumer, but it means the economics for Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) operators will mean even larger scale is needed as margins are liable to drop further. This will see further consolidation and there'll be an even smaller number of big players, which eventually leads back to the old market with BT and maybe one or two large players left.