There are fears that unless York business people can more widely take advantage of super-fast ADSL broadband facilities, the momentum of the city's growing reputation as "the Cambridge of the North" will be lost.

Here ANGUS MERELIE general manager of BT Wholesale answers the York critics...

PRESS coverage in recent weeks has stimulated debate about broadband availability in York. Much of the coverage is anecdotal, and unfortunately some of it critical.

BT has directly contacted those customers who commented in the Business Press, and many of those issues either have been, or are in the process of being, resolved.

However, BT is happy to take the opportunity to talk about the wider issues of broadband and to work in partnership with local businesses to ensure they have access to networks which are appropriate for their businesses.

I will also outline details of a ground-breaking partnership which BT has just announced in the South-West, which could be a model for anywhere in the country to follow.

It shows just what can be achieved if we all work together.

The purpose of BT Wholesale's presentation to an audience of key people in the York business community last month was to find out why broadband technology was not being used in those areas where exchanges were enabled.

The feedback we have received since that meeting has been tremendous.

BT Wholesale has made a significant investment in two exchanges in York - York central exchange at Stonebow and Melrosegate exchange. Those exchanges were chosen after extensive research - firstly after looking at established patterns of Internet usage, and secondly after discussions with local business, Government and academics groups.

BT Wholesale now has to maximise on that investment before continuing with the programme of enabling new exchanges.

Around 38,000 homes and small businesses are situated in the area of ADSL-enabled exchanges in York, yet only 215 customers have taken up the option of using broadband.

Feedback from local businesses has not given us any one reason why take-up is low; rather there appear to be quite a few reasons to do with price, availability, content application and confusion about the myriad of choice due to the competitive nature of the communications industry.

ADSL - asymmetric digital subscriber line - is a product which is supplied to service providers by BT Wholesale. It uses copper wires to speed up access to the Internet and is up to 40 times faster than the conventional telephone network.

BT Wholesale has 195 broadband customers - more than 100 of these are service providers who are selling ADSL services to consumers and business people in the UK. A number of these Internet service providers (ISPs) are listed on www.bt.com/broadband.

BTOpenworld is one of these service providers. Although part of BT, BTOpenworld is treated in exactly the same way as every other ISP, buying the wholesale product at the same price and signing up to the same terms and conditions - in other words, they receive no preferential treatment.

The customer can only order ADSL via a service provider. The service provider will then establish that ADSL is available in the customer's area, and the order is placed with them.

Since last month, BT Wholesale has announced a number of initiatives to kick-start the broadband market in the UK. For example, we have lowered the price, introduced a special offer for the installation fee and launched an advertising campaign.

We have also started trials for a new self-install service where BT Wholesale will set up customers' lines to give a range of high-speed services, but leave the supply of the equipment to the service provider. The equipment can then simply be plugged in by the customer rather than installed by a BT engineer as at present.

The plan is to introduce plug-and-play broadband next month and the expectation is that this will lead to further savings in both connection and rental charges - and increase demand.

BT has also announced a ground-breaking partnership deal in Cornwall called ACT NOW, which could be closely studied by those in York who believe that concerted action is the way forward..

It is a £12.5 million project which aims to upgrade 12 of Cornwall's telephone exchanges with ADSL, and provide an intensive support package to 3,300 small and medium-sized businesses to help them make the most of the new technology.

The project is supported by £5.25 million of the Government's Objective One funding for deprived areas and has come about through a partnership between BT, the South West Regional Development Agency, Cornwall County Council, Cornwall Enterprise, Business Link Devon & Cornwall and Cornwall College.

While York and North Yorkshire is not a deprived region, the Cornish lesson is that BT alone cannot solve all the problems of broadband. It must be a co-ordinated effort between partners in the whole community.

As Sir Peter Bonfield, chief executive of BT, said: "This innovative project shows how a public-private sector partnership approach can bring broadband to regions where it would otherwise currently be uneconomic to deploy it. We hope that this partnership approach with a whole range of key public sector players in the region will also boost the demand for broadband in Cornwall and hence justify the considerable investment involved."