Thursday 18th January 2001 6:40pm

Oftel tells BT to slash local loop deadline

Following an emergency meeting Oftel is to bring forward the deadline

for access to BT's more popular exchanges to April.

The agreement to open urban exchanges three months ahead of schedule was

reached at a meeting held at Oftel's London headquarters with telcos

including Bulldog Communications, Cable and Wireless, Colt

Communications and Redstone Telecom.

Anne Lambert, director of operations at Oftel, said: "Oftel's objective

is to ensure that construction of co-location facilities begins in the

highest priority exchanges before Easter."

An Oftel spokeswoman said the more popular exchanges were originally

given a later date for unbundling because of "concerns that there

wouldn't be enough space". However, the spokeswoman admitted: "It now

appears space is not necessarily such a problem."

A spokesman from Colt Communications said: "We welcome the move. We were

never interested in the first wave of exchanges because the urban areas

are where most of our customers are."

The meeting was called because of concerns that only a few players put

in bids by last Friday's deadline for the first round of exchanges.

Charlie McCelland, product marketing manager from Redstone, said:

"Today's verdict is good news for the industry with urban exchanges

being available earlier rather than later."

Operators have also raised concerns about the costs involved. In

response Oftel has said an investigation into the costs of co-location

space is already underway. Oftel also said BT will begin a cost analysis

survey next week, with the results out by the beginning of February.

Roger Wilson

Tel: 01694 722504

Fax: 01694 724135