Plans for UK Leadership in Broadband Internet

British Telecommunications PLC
26 April 2000
                            
             BTOPENWORLD ANNOUNCES PLANS FOR
                            
           UK LEADERSHIP IN BROADBAND INTERNET
                            
*  Launch of mass market broadband portal and access
   service
*  Competitively priced compared to International
   benchmark
*  Partnerships with more than 50 content partners
*  Strategic agreements with 16 world-leading technology
    partners
*  Development of unique 'Personal openworld Portal'
*  Creation of broadband lab with leading technology
   partners

BTopenworld, BT's new high growth Internet business,
today announced plans to launch a mass market broadband
portal and high-speed Internet service from July.
     The service - branded BTopenworld - will be aimed at
consumers, small businesses and teleworkers. The consumer
service is competitively priced at £39.99 a month. It
will provide high-speed, always-on access to the Internet
and a range of highly personalised, content-rich and
interactive applications through consumer and business
broadband portals.
     Based on asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL)
technology, BTopenworld will emphasise compelling content
and applications, personalisation, ease of use,
competitive pricing, and comprehensive customer support -
positioning it at the forefront of the second wave of the
Internet.
     BTopenworld announced that over the past three
months, in a UK first, more than 50 broadband content
deals had been agreed, with many more in the pipeline.
BTopenworld has also signed strategic partnerships with
four world-leading companies, including IBM, Hewlett-
Packard, Apple and Intel, to provide customers with
broadband-ready PCs with BTopenworld pre-installed.

Personal openworld Portal
     BTopenworld will be enhanced significantly and
expanded in the future. By early 2001, BTopenworld will
offer its customers a unique Personal openworld Portal
(PoP), a personal gateway to content and applications
accessible from a range of devices including WAP mobile
phones, multi-phones, PCs or the TV.
     Ben Andradi, chief operating officer of BTopenworld,
said: 'The advent of broadband and mobile is creating a
second Internet wave. It is altogether faster, more cost-
effective and compelling. Research shows that a broadband
customer will stay on-line four times as long as a
narrowband customer and spend nearly three times as much
on e-commerce.
      'We aim to achieve UK leadership in the broadband
Internet space through BTopenworld. We have a new
management team, the right skills, platforms, content
relationships and aggressive marketing to enable us to
succeed.'
     BTopenworld's broadband offering will be very
different from the Internet experience to date. It will
enhance significantly existing services such as Internet,
videoconferencing, online education and information
services, enabling users to download information, images,
video clips or graphics almost instantly. It is
characterised by the following key features:
     *    Always on - providing customers with instant
          access at all times.
     *    High speed - enabling customers to download
          information at between 10 and 20 times the
          speed of a conventional modem.
     *    Content rich - providing customers with audio
          and video rich material designed specifically
          for the broadband portals.
     *    Localised and personalised - providing
          customers with information and content tailored
          to their preference and requirements.
     *    Delivered seamlessly over multiple devices and
          technologies - providing customers with access
          to their chosen content and applications
          through their WAP mobile phone, TV or PC.
     BTopenworld is already driving the market for
broadband customers. More than 35,000 people have
registered interest in the service and BTopenworld will
begin taking pre-orders from today. Customers can order
online at www.btopenworld.com
     At launch, BTopenworld will consist of two high
speed products; a consumer offering for home users and a
small business offering - each with its own portal and
wealth of information, education and entertainment on-
line.

Consumer offering
*    The BTopenworld consumer service is competitively
     priced at £39.99 per month (inclusive of VAT)
*    If ordered before June 30, the installation fee will
     be waived (normally £150 inclusive of VAT)
*    Customer support and helpdesk with calls
     charged at the local rate.

Single business user offering
*    Competitively priced at £39.99 per month (exclusive
     of VAT)
*    If ordered before June 30, the installation fee will
     be waived (normally £150 exclusive of VAT)
*    Access to unique business portal. Access to consumer
     portal is also included in price
*    Enhanced customer support and helpdesks with calls
     charged at the local rate.
Customers of both the consumer and the single user
business offering will also be offered:
* Free upgrades for customers who already have ISDN2 and
  BT Highway
* PC configuration if required (at competitive commercial
  rates)
* The ability to keep their existing BT service e-mail
  addresses
* Internet access at up to 512kbps downstream (256Kbps
  upstream) via a single connection, 10 to 20 times
  faster than a conventional modem
* Universal Serial Bus (USB) connection to the PC.

Multi-user business offering
* Competitively priced at £99.99 per month (exclusive of
  VAT) with a £260 (exclusive of VAT) installation fee.
  Customers can connect directly four PCs with up to 10
  e-mail addresses. They can connect more PCs using
  their own cabling
* Ethernet based connectivity
* Enhanced customer support and helpdesks with calls
  charged at the local rate
* Customers can keep their existing BT e-mail addresses
* Professional PC installation offered at competitive
  commercial rates
* Access speeds of up to eight times faster than an ISDN
  connection, instant e-mail and faster software
  downloads than ever before.
  These services will be offered to customers in line
with the national ADSL roll-out and are subject to
availability.

Content
     BTopenworld is working with established media brands
and innovative new media start-ups to attract the most
wide ranging broadband content.
The consumer content categories and providers will
include:
Auctions:       eBay, Loot, QXL.com
Automotive:     Autotrader, Carmarkets, Exchange & Mart
Entertainment:  BreakTV, Cartoon Network, Hollywood.com,
                Showtime Networks Inc, VIDNET.com
Finance:        UK-invest, Reuters, Screentrade
Food and drink: Its Wine.com,  Simply Food - Carlton Online,
                Thorntons
Games:          Gameplay, Gameswire.com, Jamba - Carlton
                Online,
Jobs/Careers:   ChangeJobs, City Jobs, JobWorld,
                Monster.com, Wide Eyes
Movies:         Atom Films, Popcorn - Carlton Online,
                Sundance Channel
News:           CNN, GlobalNetFinancial.com, Reuters
Search/Directories: LookSmart
Sport:          Extreme Sports Channel, Football.co.uk,
                Sportal, Sports.com, Sportinglife.com, 365
                Corporation Plc.
Travel:         Amadeus, Landmark Travel Channel, OTC
                Travel, Pearson Television, Thomas
                Cook.com.
     Together, they will offer compelling broadband
content for consumers, including up-to-the-minute news,
information, and entertainment services. In addition,
BTopenworld has signed a strategic agreement with
Spotlife Inc., and Logitech to trial innovative, personal
broadcasting services.
     For businesses, BTopenworld offers access to shared
applications and e-commerce support services, business
orientated search and directories, and a range of video
services (conferencing, surveillance etc). Also, included
are business channels such as travel, finance (including
tax, credit management and accountancy services), human
resource and recruitment, company and market information,
translation services and legal services.
Small business content categories and providers include:
Directories:         Yell
Human Resources:     PeopleBank, ChangeJobs, StaffPay,
                     SkillVest, SmarterWork
IT & Communications: Silicon News, ZDNet UK, VNUNet
Legal & Regulatory:  Desktop Lawyer
Order Online:        Mondus, ApplicationStation
Markets & Companies: Equifax, CobWeb, Gee Publishing
Money & Finance:     Kogan Page, Prestel Online
News:                Reuters, ft.com, Online Weather, UK-
                     Wire
Travel:              Worldlink, Bradmans, Regus, Lernout &
                     Hauspie, MapQuest.

Technology partners
     BTopenworld is developing the service with some of
the biggest names in the industry. Vignette and
Broadvision will provide content management, Real
Networks will offer video streaming, and Microsoft will
provide media streaming.
     In addition, Inktomi will provide the Internet
search engine, Netscape the web servers, Oracle will be
responsible for the databases, Solect will provide
customer care and billing systems, and Network Appliance
will provide the caching and storage. Sun and Compaq are
providing computing hardware and Cabletron is providing
the network routing equipment.

Note to editors
  BTopenworld's will be enhanced in three phases starting
in the summer.
* Summer 2000 - Phase One: consumers will be offered
  512Kbps (256Kbps upstream) USB Internet access to a
  content rich consumer portal, as described above.
  Business users will be offered 512kbps single user
  (USB) and multi-user (Ethernet) access with a content
  and application-rich small business portal.
* Autumn 2000 - Phase Two: customers will also be offered
  higher  speed (1 or 2Mbps Ethernet connections) access.
  Business users will also be offered a local area
  network (LAN) product and a range of content rich e-
  commerce applications. A teleworker package will also
  be introduced.
* December 2000 - 2001 - Phase Three: The third phase of
  BTopenworld's deployment will offer all of the above
  services plus the Personal openworld Portal for all
  users. It will also include interactive e-commerce
  applications, even richer content, new communication
  services and TV-based services.

Service and Support
     BTopenworld will provide end to end customer
service, including arranging for the ADSL network
equipment to be installed by specialist broadband BT
engineers and offering an optional PC configuration
service. All support and service will be managed all day,
every day by a state-of-the-art Operational Support
System. Potential customers can pre order BTopenworld on-
line at www.btopenworld.com.

Broadband laboratory
     BTopenworld will establish a broadband applications
laboratory facility at BT's Adastral Park that provides
an environment to support application developers and
Internet entrepreneurs. It will be funded jointly by
BTopenworld and group of global technology companies. 
 
Availability
     BTopenworld will be marketed and offered to
customers in line  with the national ADSL roll-out. BT's
ADSL network already exceeds 400 exchanges covering 26
per cent of the UK population. By mid-2000, one in three
UK households and businesses - and more than half of the
UK's current Internet users - will be within exchange
coverage.
     At launch, BTopenworld will be offered in the
following areas:
Aberdeen, Ashford, Basingstoke, Belfast, Birmingham,
Brighton, Cambridge, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Coventry,
Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hastings, Leeds, Liverpool, London,
Manchester, Milton Keynes, Newcastle, Nottingham, Oxford,
Portsmouth, Swindon, Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells,
Winchester and York.
     ADSL is added to an existing telephone line by
attaching advanced electronics to both ends; at the local
exchange and at the office or home. It enables the
customer to use BTopenworld without affecting the use of
the line for telephone or fax calls.