§ Mr. HammondTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what her estimate is of the number of local loops that will have been unbundled by July; and what estimate she originally made when the local loop unbundling initiative was announced. [68043]
§ Stephen TimmsAt the end of June 2002, over 600 lines had been unbundled. It is difficult to forecast how many unbundled local loops there will be by a given date as this is dependent on operators' own commercial rollout plans. Past attempts to forecast volumes of unbundled loops have proved unreliable for a number of reasons, not least the prevailing market conditions and the decision by operators to target the business rather than residential market.