Oftel, the telecoms watchdog have set the price at which BT must allow rivals to offer ADSL internet access. Those rivals wishing to take a local loop from BT will have to pay £122 per year plus a one-off connection fee of £88. The final charge to customers will be set by the operators. The £122 rent brings the price of ADSL close to the retail cost of telephone monthly dial-up accounts.

Operators will still need to install their own ADSL equipment into the local exchanges.

Additional charges that have also been fixed by Oftel are for cables that connect unbundled loops in BT's exchanges to pperators own equipment and the cost for renting these will be £21 per year for every 100 unbundled line, including a one-off charge of £863 for connection to equipment within the exchange.

Oftel have stated that by announcing the final costs of loops and arrangements for shared access should help operators finalise their plans for offering high speed services using BT's telephone network.

This announcement however, has received criticism from rivals to BT who want to undercut BT's ADSL prices to their existing customers.