Sussex internet users are hoping to take advantage of lower prices for high-speed internet access after BT's move to reinvigorate Britain's broadband revolution.

The telecoms group has slashed the wholesale line rental for consumer assymetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) connections from £25 to £14.75 a month with effect from April 1.

Brighton-based internet service provider Mistral Internet has been selling the BT ADSL self-install product as part of a trial since last December.

Managing director Karl Robinson said self-installation was an important development because of the flexibility it provided.

He said: "We are starting to focus more on this, even though it creates more work for us. It's giving people more choice about what they want and gets around the problem of having to wait for a BT engineer before anything happens."

Mr Robinson said the price cuts affected only domestic users, not the business market, which would have to wait until April to find out about further charges.

He said: "It's usually about money in the consumer market. For business users, price is not as much of an issue. They are more concerned about the quality of service and the level of technical support, which some service providers have lost sight of during periods of rapid expansion."

Broadband is seen as being increasingly important for business as more bandwidth-hungry applications, like video-streaming, are developed and analysts believe access to cost-effective, high-speed internet access is limiting growth of the knowledge economy.

Although Brighton has good broadband coverage, high-speed internet access is unavailable in some parts of Sussex because high prices have led to low demand and little or no content provision.

The South-East England Development Agency (Seeda) has said although parts of the South-East are well provided with broadband services, the region as a whole is poorly provided for.

Is is hoping BT's new pricing strategy will change this.

Project manager at Seeda Peter Waller said: "We hope the price reduction stimulates demand and leads to more content for and from the region's companies."

BT said it hoped service providers such as Freeserve and AOL would pass the benefit of the price reductions to users, who could see retail prices fall below £30 a month.

BT had come under fire for the amount it charged providers for access to its broadband network and high prices had been blamed for the slow take-up of the service.

Chief executive Ben Verwaayen said: "Broadband is the future for Britain and we're putting it at the heart of BT's plans for growth in the UK mass market.

"This will drive the whole market forward by making broadband affordable, attractive and accessible."

BT is targeting one million broadband connections over its network by the summer of 2003. It pledged to improve the quality of its services and increase demand by working with 40 providers to market broadband services.

Mr Verwaayen said: "To be sure of meeting these targets. we need the support of the entire broadband community, including particularly content creators and providers."

The Government, which has widely publicised its objective to have the most competitive and extensive broadband market in any G7 country by 2005, welcomed the BT price cuts.

www. mistral. co. uk
www.e-envoy.gov.uk
www.seeda.co.uk
www.bt.com