BT Plans Move To IP Telephony, Starting Next Year

pure_equanimity writes "The BBC have published an article saying that BT are planning to migrate from a PSTN to an IP network, a move to cost 3bn. They say that broadband will become ubiquitous, with customers having the ability to plug any device in to get access. They also say that current cheap broadband products will more than likely not be viable in five years time. They plan to start rolling out in 2006, and cover the vast majority of customers by 2009."

Comments

So...

[macshune]

"They also say that current cheap broadband products will more than likely not be viable in five years time. They plan to start rolling out in 2006, and cover the vast majority of customers by 2009."

So they are gonna hook customers up right before the prices go up? I thought prices would go down as time marches on? What about all that "dark fiber"?

rims?

[narkotix]

do people in britain (and other countries) suffer from the RIM syndrome? ie being on a remote integrated multiplexor? or even being pairgained? If its common over there, does that mean BT will be ugprading all their exchanges?

Re:rims?

[squaretorus]

My new house suffers from this, but a quick hour on the phone to BT persuaded them that this 'sucked' and that upgrading my line was a 'good idea' so that I could get broadband.

For anyone in a similar position, heres how I did it. Remember at all times that the person you are talking to is a thick bastard who couldnt get a real job and hates his/her life and just wants to go home.

Is my phoneline split? I can only get 28Kbps on my dial up! Can I get broadband - I know my exchange is enabled.
"Your line fails the test sir - you cant get broadband"
"But is my line split? I beleive I read that if your line is split BT has to replace it if you order broadband on an enabled exchange"
"I dont think thats right sir - where did you see that?"
"In flight magazine probably - BA"
"I'll ask my supervisor"
"Hello - supervisor here - you have a line issue"
"I want a new line because I suspect its shared and I want broadband and you have to change the line" ...
to cut a long story short (well - okay - lonng) I just repeated this about 2 dozen times until they booked me an engineer to replace the line. I dont think its true - but these guys just want an easy life so hassle them into giving you the line. Oh - but remember - when they say "where did you read it" say "Fortune" or "In flight magazine" not "/."

Charge by the MB

[Anonymous Coward]

You can bet their charging scheme will change to p/minute to p/MB of data. That way they can cash in on all the "free" telephony.

Re:So what numbers will we use

[mrchaotica]

Well, everyone will just register a .phone domain for themselves, so you can just call them by name.

God help you if you're John Smith!

The Skype Telephone

[Beautyon]

When Skype come out with their telephone kit that plugs straight into the new BT network will BT cut off people trying to use another handset? They might, but they wont get away with it.

This is going to be the biggest revolution in telephony the UK has ever seen. Whilst a Skype handset might not connect you to phones that are not on their network, if enough people use it, it could supplant the BT network and destroy their business.

I wonder how they are going to charge for the service, obviously line rental, which will be the minimum they will be able to collect from each user, but taking into consideration the ease with which people will be able to switch providers, their churn rate will be very high indeed.

Basically, they are going to spend 3 billion to put themselvs out of business. Great!

Re:The Skype Telephone

[onion2k]

Basically, they are going to spend 3 billion to put themselvs out of business. Great!

Wrong. They've realised that things like Skype will put them out of business if they don't move on, so they're shifting away from traditional voice comms and entirely into data comms. They'll change their pricing accordingly too, probably to a charge based on the amount of data you use rather than an amount of time.

Its the old style voice telcos that are going to be disappearing.

Re:bandwidth capacity?

[Nurgled]

I imagine that the majority of phone call traffic will never leave BT's network, since the uptake of IP telephony in the rest of the world is still quite small.

Even if similar moves are made in other countries, I'm sure BT have some connections that could keep it local until it hits the remote exchange.

Re:So what numbers will we use

[WarwickRyan]

The backend is going to be IP based you fool. So we'll still have telephone numbers etc, but BT will route all of the call data via IP. So, basically, they'll reduce the already tiny operating costs even more, whilst attempting to bump up the cost of xDSL even further. They'll probably argue along the lines of "Mr X uses much more bandwidth now so we have to charge more". The excess bandwidth being Mr X's telephone calls, which he is already paying for.

Re:Wow - That's unexpected

[iserlohn]

25/mth is quite good in the UK actually, but 25 pounds = 45 USD. You could probably get 1.5mbs with a good provider in the US for $35, and in Canada for less than $25 ($20 USD). In Japan and HK, you get 10+mbs for around $20 USD.

Telewest has just increase it's bandwidth by 50% though (no change in the plan price though). 512->768k, 1.0->1.5m etc. It's great and probably a good deal if you want 1mbs and don't have bulldog in your area.