BT's local loop shall be unbundled (7 December 1999) OFTEL has issued its final statement on local loop unbundling, Access to Bandwidth: Delivering Competition for the Information Age. This marks the end of a consultation process lasting exactly a year: the statement makes few changes from OFTEL's proposals for action. What it means is that: until approximately June 2001 BT retains control of its local loop (from exchange to subscriber); thereafter the BT local loop is unbundled so other operators can put their equipment in BT exchanges and run voice, voice and data or data-only services to subscribers; the local loops of cable operators and of Kingston Communications remain entirely under their control for the time being. We understand that the statement has forced BT to bring forward its ADSL rollout plans by several months; the June 2001 deadline is a strong incentive for BT to get ADSL out on a large scale while control of its local loop remains with it. Overall we are pleased with the statement; we know that OFTEL withstood intense pressure from BT to keep its local loop in perpetuity, although it took a long time to make the decision and it will be a long time before unbundling takes place. Specific issues: OFTEL assumes (2.38) that subscribers will take ADSL plus telephone service. What if no telephone service is wanted? This is not implausible given the rise of mobile communications, yet data-only service seems not to be considered, at least while BT still has control of its local loop. On broadband access for remote and disadvantaged areas (10.4), OFTEL rather smooths over the issue. As before, we suggest a much more public debate with those involved having their say. OFTEL's argument against customer-installed solutions (B.42) is weak, and we believe that not taking these (such as ADSL Lite) seriously, which would provide 'slower but cheaper' permanent connections, is a mistake. More than one-third of the statement (D.1 et seq) is taken up by a cost-benefit analysis commissioned by OFTEL and produced by Analysys. We feel that the projected takeup of ADSL is a considerable underestimate.