BT offers upgrade from ISDN to DSL

BT has performed a U-turn and agreed to support users wishing to upgrade from ISDN to digital subscriber line services.

BT has performed a U-turn and agreed to support users wishing to upgrade from ISDN to digital subscriber line (DSL) services.

According to sources, BT had previously said it could not run DSL over the same cables that currently run ISDN. This had dismayed resellers who would have had to admit to clients that they face another set of installation charges.

Kai Alais, sales director at AVM, complained that as other European telcos offer this upgrade path to customers, UK broadband customers would be unfairly penalised.

He explained that small to medium sized enterprises are being discouraged from investing in IT because networking resellers are being suppressed. "I feel sorry for the resellers; they are the ones who will get the blame," he said.

But Chris Simmons, marketing manager at BT, said the telecoms giant is now testing the viability of running DSL along existing IDSN cabling.

"There are 100,000 orders for DSL generated by the Openworld initiative. The ISDN among them will now be offered the chance to test DSL over those lines. We can confirm that we are offering the upgrade now," he said.

First published in Computer Reseller News