Workshops to smooth switch from BT IPstream

Customers currently using BT IPstream have been invited to meet up with BT Wholesale at workshops to gain a better understanding of how they can start planning and preparing for the service's future 'sunsetting'.

These get-together workshops mark the start of Phase 2 of the withdrawal process. They are designed to help provide better insight into the different options available to customers as they advance from 20C to 21CN broadband services. They follow an extensive industry consultation period and the publication of a report earlier this year that outlined what the product's retirement could potentially mean for customers and their end-users.

The complete removal of BT IPstream from the BT Wholesale portfolio is still a long way ahead. But as our next generation broadband service - Wholesale Broadband Connect (WBC) and its managed equivalent, Wholesale Broadband Managed Connect (WBMC) - continue to grow in coverage, so we will gradually phase out BT IPstream.

WBC and WBMC are already available to 40% of the UK population - more than 10 million homes - and expected to reach up to 55% by March 2010. To support this transition to 21CN broadband, the IPstream Connect (IPSC) product enables Communications Providers (CPs) to move their BT IPstream end-users onto new 21CN infrastructure and cease their existing Centrals. Although this product is available to CPs to buy directly, by the end of 2009 BT Wholesale is aiming to launch IPSC via WBMC to provide an aggregated service that supports both 21CN and 20CN end-users. Our future plan will be to withdraw BT IPstream from service each time an exchange becomes 'WBC-enabled'. The timescales for starting this withdrawal programme and the notification periods will be discussed with Industry as part of the consultation.

The workshops will be offering the opportunity to take a more detailed look at the many advantages of a 21CN broadband solution. In addition to their higher quality and speeds of up to 24Mbit/s*, WBC and WBMC offer customers the cost-efficiencies and flexibility inherent in all services on the 21CN platform. There is also the prospect of being able to give greater choice by customising services quickly and cheaply to meet the needs of individuals and gain the market edge with new software services and apps.

* Currently the maximum speed a line can support subject to the distance from the exchange and other external factors such as interference on the line.

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Find out more about Wholesale Broadband Connect here.

Discover our fully managed broadband solution - Wholesale Broadband Managed Connect - here. 

Or contact your BT Wholesale account management team.