Local Loop Unbundling

Admin wrote:Hello, if you have any questions for candidates please post them here.

I would like candidates views on the advantages and disadvantages to the Phone Coop of LLU.

langesund wrote:

Admin wrote:Hello, if you have any questions for candidates please post them here.

I would like candidates views on the advantages and disadvantages to the Phone Coop of LLU.

I could bullsh*t about this but I won't. Most of what I know about this I learned at the seminar put on for members at the last AGM - what a wonderful thing. LLU enables businesses other than BT to offer a fully integrated service right back to the exchange, whereas previously all competitors were forced to be, to a greater or lesser degree, resellers of BT capacity. As a business opportunity, it is an artificial one created by the continued efforts by the regulators to open up the significant areas of monopoly held by BT. All such previous openings up have been beneficial to both customers and competitors, sometimes after some initial teething problems, with increases in the volumes and value of business being done. We are now in a different business climate where it is not inevitable that there are extra call volumes to be had. If there are risks, they relate to this.

Jim Robertson

langesund wrote:

Admin wrote:Hello, if you have any questions for candidates please post them here.

I would like candidates views on the advantages and disadvantages to the Phone Coop of LLU.

I presume that the introduction of LLU has enabled the Phone Co-op to offer packages like Anytime Saver at more competitive prices. Such packages will be more important in the next few years. I hope that it also means that any faults will be dealt with quicker, as the one problem I have had was when there was a fault lay with BT and they seemed to be in no rush to sort out the problem. I also presume that if the phone co-op grows sufficiently then it too could install and run its own equipment in exchanges. The service provided by the phone co-op has been excellent and the more control it has over equipment the better.
The disadvantages are that BT still controls and owns the lines and that at present the phone co-op will not be able to match price with some of the larger providers.

Paul Grassick

langesund wrote:

Admin wrote:Hello, if you have any questions for candidates please post them here.

I would like candidates views on the advantages and disadvantages to the Phone Coop of LLU.

I believe LLU is an exciting business opportunity for the Phone Co-op because it means that the Phone Co-op can offer lower cost 'bundles' to customers and members in exchanges which have been enabled by our carrier(s). It's true to say that we can't compete with the cheapest offers - but that should not prevent us from gaining new customers, just as it hasn't in the past. In any event, our Anytime Saver rate is actually pretty competitive. Another obvious benefit for Phone Co-op LLU customers is that in the event of a line fault, they will deal with our excellent customer services team, rather than a BT call-centre.

There is a potential downside for the Phone Co-op, because customers using our LLU service are 'tied in' to a particular carrier over the period of their contract. As resellers, we will therefore not have the same flexibility to migrate customers form one carrier to another, in order to take advantage of better rates and this might weaken our bargaining power.

The main disadvantage of LLU for Phone Co-op customers and members living outside cities is that currently it's generally only available in urban areas. Carriers are 'cherry picking' exchanges in which they install their equipment. For example one carrier told us that it's possible to offer LLU to about 80% of the UK population by installing equipment in just 20% of exchanges. Hopefully once LLU has been rolled out in densely populated areas, competition between carriers will ensure that it is gradually made available in some of the more marginal exchanges - just as it did with broadband. There may be an opportunity for the Phone Co-op to install it's own equipment in selected exchanges, but realistically I think we could only do this in partnership with a carrier.

Peter Turnbull