CUT Challenges BT To Come Clean on ADSL

London, 30 March 1999

For immediate release

The Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications [CUT], an organisation
campaiging for fair telecommunications charging in the United Kingdom,
has written an open letter demanding that BT come clean on what it is
doing about ADSL.

Alastair Scott, Moderator of CUT, commented:

"Now that the dominant telecommunications operators in Germany and
Spain have announced ADSL rollouts starting in the next few months,
with Telefónica SA claiming that 30% of Spaniards will be able to sign
up to ADSL by the end of the year, we wonder why BT are not in a
similar position.

Although BT have built up an all-digital network - an astonishing
technical achievement in itself - they are still trialling ADSL and
have no information on pricing, dates or extent of coverage. Our open
letter states our suspicions for why this is so.

BT's approach is not good enough. Our campaigning has shown that
people in this country are crying out for fairly priced Internet
access - and, from BT at least, it appears that they will not be
getting it soon. Like it or loathe it, the Internet cannot be ignored:
everyone who wants to use it must have affordable access as a matter
of urgency."

Notes for Editors:

1. The open letter to BT is available at:

http://www.unmetered.org.uk/news/news300399.htm

2. ADSL (Advanced Digital Subscriber Line) is a technique which will
allow BT users to access the Internet from home or business at high
speeds using their existing phone line. For details see the industry
forum:

http://www.xdsl.com/

Contact:

Erol Ziya
Press Officer, Campaign for Unmetered Telecommunications
press@unmetered.org.uk

http://www.unmetered.org.uk/

+44 171 681 2831