Andrew Ferguson over at http://adslguide.org has just posted another update on the state of play with LLU. Happy reading. ---- The monthly update from the Office of the Telecoms Adjudicator has been published, which shows that the UK now has in excess of 735,000 LLU lines. The total in the previous month was 673,000. The full report can be found on www.offta.org.uk. The report raises concerns about issues like Right First Time delivery, which can be seen on our forums with the number of people migrated onto an LLU platform by their provider who subsequently have issues with their connection. Sometimes these issues are LLU based e.g. to do with the work carried out by Openreach or the LLU providers own kit, but very often it is the teething problems of moving from a fixed speed to a rate adaptive service. For many the rate adaptive up to 8Mbps ADSL services work well, but most seem to suffer a few more disconnections than is normal in the first day or so. Where service providers are moving customers in bulk to an LLU platform this can result in people reporting faults when its just bedding in issues, as they may not have been aware of the switch over date. This week has seen a lot of editorial features in the press and online about 'free' broadband and the issues surrounding it, one area we feel needs to be looked at is providers switching the wholesale provider on a customers line. It is hard to judge how many are leaving providers due to dissatisfaction after being switched from an IPStream to an LLU based service, but it appears that if the customer did not know it was happening they are more likely to want to switchback, or will move to another provider. Other than the big names in the LLU arena like, AOL, Bulldog, Be, Orange, Sky, Talk Talk and UK Online, most (but not all) providers are using a wholesale LLU service, with Tiscali Wholesale being the most common partner at present.
