Internet service provider Tiscali is one of many companies that provides a combination of broadband and internet services to consumers and business customers. The company's UK arm was formed by the acquisition of LineOne, World Online and LibertySurf in 2000.
"The success of ADSL was even faster than anticipated due to two things: firstly the focus for most companies is on reducing operating expenditure, and leased line connections based on frame relay and ATM are costly. Also, people were keen to migrate to always-on access," say Tiscali's chief operating officer, Stephane Huet.
Tiscali is now looking to provide add-on services for firms, such as flexible billing and call centre capabilities, voice over IP (VoIP) and IP virtual private networks (VPNs). "With convergence [of voice and data] on the corporate side, there is clearly a unique position for us," says Huet. "We have built our own IP network that runs VoIP at its core, and we are now looking to integrate that on the customer connection."
Currently, the biggest barrier to the adoption of ADSL by companies is the lack of the service level agreements (SLAs) that guarantee minimum levels of bandwidth and stipulate compensation if connections fail or under-perform.
The problem has been partly solved by the introduction of limited SLAs through BT's wholesale DataStream ADSL service at the beginning of this year. This provides a level of bandwidth guaranteed by backup ISDN lines. ISPs such as Tiscali that lease DataStream services from BT can then safeguard customers' traffic as soon as it transfers off the local copper loop and onto their own networks.
Huet says that this capability is key to ensuring fair competition in the broadband market, because it allows providers such as Tiscali to differentiate themselves from BT's own ADSL services on something other than price.
"Now you are able to define the capability and services you want to offer to users, you are not just stuck with what BT has to offer," explains Huet. "You can define, within the capability of BT's DSL equipment, any product you like, higher or lower downstream bandwidth and contention ratios, customised packages, for instance, and that is key."
Tiscali has been critical about BT's role in the broadband market, and about price-cutting and discount strategies between BT's DataStream and IPStream wholesale services, arguing that the telecoms giant undermines fair competition.
Tiscali and other users of BT Wholesale's DataStream service submitted a complaint to Oftel on 17 June, asking the regulator to provide tighter regulations.
Despite the continuing problems of coverage and lack of adequate SLAs, Tiscali says it is focusing purely on ADSL and satellite access technologies for the moment. At the end of this year, the company will roll out satellite services with coverage across Europe in partnership with Eutelsat. But it has no definite plans to extend its reach through fixed wireless or Wi-Fi services. "We have decided to do one complementary technology which is satellite, which enables us to fill the coverage gap completely," says Huet.
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