It has been reported that BT have said to their existing ISDN customers that they are to 'go to the back of the queue' if they wish to upgrade to the asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL). Those customers that have ordinary analogue phones are already being connected.

When BT were contacted they did apologise to the customers who were told that they had to go to the back of the queue and this was not in fact the case. BT are currently faced with a combination of technical and administrative issues that are making the transition from an ISDN line to ADSL difficult. These transitions are still being developed and will not be ready until early 2001.

The problem that BT are facing in the UK is that an ADSL connection cannot run over the same line as ISDN and it is not simply a case of disconnecting the ISDN connection and installing an ADSL one, this also affects issues such as billing, order handling and order managing services that have to be changed at the same time.

BT are currently experiencing quite a few problems with their home ADSL service.