11 January 2007
Today marks the first anniversary of Openreach and its unbundling programme, a year which saw faster broadband speeds at lower prices for consumers across the country. Despite this, some major issues still haunt the broadband market.
Local loop unbundling (LLU) has revolutionised the broadband industry, allowing a greater amount of competition within the market which has led to the cost of high-speed internet plummeting for consumers.
Aggressive marketing tactics like "free" broadband have led to a 30% rise in the number of DSL subscribers in the UK, but the surge in demand has led to some less-than-satisfactory by-products.
Popularity has led to an enormous strain on the already limited number of Openreach engineers, meaning that it takes longer for consumers to have line faults repaired, switch providers or make that initial connection to broadband.
In addition, customer service levels have drastically dropped with a record 2.8 million broadband customers stating that they are not satisfied with their service, according to research from the independent price comparison and switching website uSwitch.com.
Mac code issues have also caused problems for consumers keen to take advantage of the cheaper tariffs on offer, since they simply do not work when moving from one LLU provider to another, although Ofcom has begun to look into ways of resolving this.
Steve Weller, head of communications at uSwitch.com, said that he believed Openreach had "heralded a new era for home communications".
He added: "Broadband is now there for the taking – it's up to consumers to make sure they are getting the best deal and the industry to continue its efforts to make broadband accessible to all."
© 2008 Adfero Ltd
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