The Usual Suspects

In the last month or so, Kingston, Norweb, Redstone and Thus have all withdrawn from DSL trials. They all blame BT for making their positions untenable. We reckon there are nine companies still left in the trials (down from the original 14).

Norweb says BT is 'holding back' DSL. Thus said it had budgeted to spend £40m to install DSL equipment into 300 of BT's exchanges, but now claims it can't justify the economics of doing so.

World Online was taking part in a trial in Edinburgh, from which NTL withdrew last November. Since then, World Online claims BT has been trying to claw back the revenue that it lost when NTL did a bunk by asking the remaining trialists for more dosh.

World Online's statement read: "The cost of co-location space in the BT exchange was always high. However, since other operators have exited it has potentially more than doubled. We appreciate that BT wants to recover the costs of building this space but in our view it is not acceptable or reasonable to look to those operators who entered into the trial process on the understanding that their costs were fixed..."

Now far be it from the Round-Up to defend BT, but as this issue begins to sink further into the mire, let's fling some muck around and see where else it sticks.

Target one: World Online's lawyers. How happy would you be if your company's representatives signed a contract with BT, not knowing the costs would go up if someone pulled out of the trial?

Target two: Redstone's business analysts. Redstone found out that co-location was economically unviable, and is now building its own exchanges near BT's. Unless the trialists weren't fully aware of the costs in advance (and surely not even BT would have tried that one - would it?), why has it taken Redstone this long to do its sums properly?

Target three: Oftel. BT is of course in the fortunate position of being able to move the goalposts. Despite some appearances to the contrary, there are some clever people in BT whose primary responsibility is to protect the interests of a commercial organisation. The companies co-locating their equipment have to pay BT; most of the companies who have pulled out will now be reselling BT's own wholesale DSL packages - and will be paying BT for the privilege. BT's sitting very prettily on a comfortable win-win cushion.

So what's Oftel's reaction? It wasn't prepared to say much when we called. This is just a commercial issue between BT and the others, it claimed. Is that good enough? Some people are now saying co-mingling is the answer (I'm getting sick of all these silly words). Co-location involves BT giving the competition access to a separate room in its exchanges; co-mingling involves the DSL wannabes putting their nuts and bolts and widgets alongside BT's kit, which (some claim) is cheaper than co-location. BT says no way, Jose: the integrity of the nation's phone lines will be jeapordised.

And it's not part of the unbundling deal - which brings us back to Oftel. It's not BT's job to ensure this country has low-cost, high-speed internet access. Its only duty is to make money. It's Oftel's job to do the difficult balancing act of keeping everyone happy.

Target four: all of the trialists who have withdrawn. Could they be indulging in some brinkmanship, trying to goad Oftel into tilting the playing field decidedly in their direction?

Whatever the rights and wrongs, one thing is clear: the wheels are coming off the unbundling process. If any more companies pull out, there won't be any effective competition in the market, and BT's local loop monopoly will remain pretty much intact. But perhaps the saddest thing of all is that we've just devoted about 750 words to the failure of the DSL trials. Yes, TRIALS. Best not hold your breath for the real thing.

So: the UK is the best place in Europe to do ecommerce is it? Not until somebody sorts this mess out - or sticks a load of fibre in the ground and by-passes BT altogether (well, we can dream can't we? Sweden and Canada have taken this approach already, so it's not impossible). As David Price, practice director for eservices and infrastructure at telecoms consultancy the Phillips Group, said this week: "Without due consideration of the ultimate goal, any deployment [of DSL] will be limited and worse, limiting. The UK may be the best place for ebusiness... but, right now, only if you're a legacy telecommunication provider."

Enough of that. From the dull (but worthy) onto the plain daft. Question: forget Keyser Soze - who is Nick Jones?

We got an email from a reader this week who wanted to know why a man called Nick Jones seemed to be quoted right left and centre on silicon.com and elsewhere.

Well, we forwarded this mail to 'our' Nick Jones, a senior analyst at Jupiter MMXi. And this is where the plot thickened. Jupiter Jones (as we'll now call him) told us that he seems ubiquitous, not because he's a media tart, but because he's not alone...

There's a Nick Jones at Gartner - he comments on mobile technologies and commerce. There's a Canadian internet consultant called Nick Jones. Jupiter Jones also thinks there's a Nick Jones in senior management at WPP, who's "bound to have a view on the internet" and may therefore appear in print from time to time. Nick Jones is also the BBC's political editor (less likely to be quoted in IT circles, but still...) And even weirder, there's a Nick Jones at Goldman Sachs who just happens to have the same home phone number as Jupiter Jones, apart from the area code (one is 0207, the other 0208).

Now Nick Jones is clearly not the rarest name. But I'm sure you'll agree that this is stranger than a giraffe in a tutu.

I'm afraid that's all we've got room for this week (sorry about the lack of news - got a bit carried away with the DSL stuff).

We're also running our annual Skills Survey at the moment to find out what's going on in the IT departments of Europe. (To take part, click here: www.silicon.com/survey2001 )

One final thought: don't open an email on Valentine's day if it has the subject line I LOVE YOU. It'll only be a virus.

The Round-Up will be its usual romantic self next Friday.