Cable Forum - View Single Post - BT Open Up Ducting

Ignitionnet · 25-02-2010, 14:09

As noted previously the whole point of BT's statement is that they are allowing access to their ducts.

The costs or otherwise of building BT's network aren't relevant to the discussion. BT's network, ducts, poles and pairs included, was bought and paid for by the private sector. The investment in 21CN and exchange digitalisation was actually more expensive than the entire cost of the company 21CN alone going to some 10 figures.

A figure for full FTTP build assuming a new civils build with the exemption of being able to use BT's ducts which you appear to consider so pants would appear to disagree with your views on this somewhat. That ntl and Telewest massively overpaid for their cable assets when they were greedily eating up the UK cable market doesn't mean that the networks themselves were as expensive to build as their prices may suggest. For the price ntl paid for ex-CWC CoCo for example, 8.2bn which with inflation would be over 9 now, it's believed over half of the population of the UK, more than the total coverage of VM, could have a full FTTP build using only BT ducting as far as existing build goes.

Has a full audit been done of the VM access ducting? Can you say with any confidence what condition it is in compared with the BT ducting? It may be 20 years newer doesn't mean that there's magically more capacity there.

Your argument is certainly one VM may present, it's not one I'd for a moment believe. Ofcom are well aware of the state of the BT ducting Openreach have been doing audits of it for a while in preparation for NGA, are VM aware of which access ducts, not core, access, are near capacity or have other issues that would preclude their use by competitors?

I understood it was also an excuse, and I'll call it that without a trace of hesitation, that VM are using a large proportion of their access network duct space for their own purposes so there wouldn't be much left to sell anyway without extensive work on VM's part.

Can't have it both ways, either it's this immeasurably superior ducting with loads of space compared to BT's network or it's full and wouldn't be economic to sell.

Which is it going to be?

25-02-2010, 14:09	#34
Ignitionnet Inactive Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Leeds, West Yorkshire Age: 47 Posts: 13,995	Re: BT Open Up Ducting - Look To Use Virgin's As noted previously the whole point of BT's statement is that they are allowing access to their ducts. The costs or otherwise of building BT's network aren't relevant to the discussion. BT's network, ducts, poles and pairs included, was bought and paid for by the private sector. The investment in 21CN and exchange digitalisation was actually more expensive than the entire cost of the company 21CN alone going to some 10 figures. A figure for full FTTP build assuming a new civils build with the exemption of being able to use BT's ducts which you appear to consider so pants would appear to disagree with your views on this somewhat. That ntl and Telewest massively overpaid for their cable assets when they were greedily eating up the UK cable market doesn't mean that the networks themselves were as expensive to build as their prices may suggest. For the price ntl paid for ex-CWC CoCo for example, 8.2bn which with inflation would be over 9 now, it's believed over half of the population of the UK, more than the total coverage of VM, could have a full FTTP build using only BT ducting as far as existing build goes. Has a full audit been done of the VM access ducting? Can you say with any confidence what condition it is in compared with the BT ducting? It may be 20 years newer doesn't mean that there's magically more capacity there. Your argument is certainly one VM may present, it's not one I'd for a moment believe. Ofcom are well aware of the state of the BT ducting Openreach have been doing audits of it for a while in preparation for NGA, are VM aware of which access ducts, not core, access, are near capacity or have other issues that would preclude their use by competitors? I understood it was also an excuse, and I'll call it that without a trace of hesitation, that VM are using a large proportion of their access network duct space for their own purposes so there wouldn't be much left to sell anyway without extensive work on VM's part. Can't have it both ways, either it's this immeasurably superior ducting with loads of space compared to BT's network or it's full and wouldn't be economic to sell. Which is it going to be?