Tiscali Press Release - Tiscali announces wholesale LLU deal with PlusNet

Tiscali, the internet and broadband company, today announces a further deal with internet provider PlusNet to provide wholesale unbundled broadband services enabling PlusNet to offer its customers faster broadband services using the Tiscali network. The deal follows a successful trial which began in November 2005, guarantees a minimum of 20,000 unbundled lines.

Tiscali began its investment in Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) in 2005 and is currently rolling out its LLU network, with a target of 600 exchanges nationally by the end of 2006.

The wholesale LLU service will allow PlusNet to offer speeds of up to 8Mb to its customers and 24Mb in areas where Tiscali is using ADSL 2+ technology. In addition to LLU Tiscali is also currently undergoing trials for a new ADSL Max service and proposes to launch ADSL Max based services outside unbundled areas on the successful completion of these trials across both IPStream and DataStream.

Nathan Francis, general manager of Tiscali Business Services says: "We are pleased that PlusNet has chosen Tiscali. Tiscali's unique offering of both DataStream and LLU allows us to provide a compelling national wholesale offer and therefore a great choice of services to our wholesale customers."

Tiscali is one of the few wholesale competitors to BT in the UK with customers including Playlouder MSP using its ADSL services and internet provider 186K using LLU based services. Tiscali will continue to offer multiplatform broadband services with an aim to providing unbundled services where it makes economic sense. It estimates that its target 600 exchanges will provide over 60% reach in the UK.