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Peter Black's latest Telecommunications Adjudicator Update notes that the 'delivery of backhaul in exchanges is still unacceptable'. Put simply this means that BT is failing to release telephone lines so that operators can plug them into their own networks.

Black adds that 'this has

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been an outstanding issue for some time', although he goes on to say that BT is moving in the right direction: the backlog is being reduced and the number of LLU lines that BT is delivering have 'significantly increased'.

There are now 360,000 unbundled lines in the UK and Black says that the industry should reach the 'breakthrough' figure of one million by the end of the year, with the current figure of 15,000 new LLU connections each month expected to rise significantly in April and May.

Black's comments on BT echo those he made a year ago when he chided BT for falling behind LLU targets.

BT's LLU problems have caused problems for several ISPs, most notably Bulldog who received numerous complaints from new customers who were left without an Internet connection while they waited for BT to plug in them in. The problem was subsequently resolved after BT installed an automated system.