The battle for broadband Britain has begun in earnest, with announcements from telecommunications providers heralding what many observers expect will become a fully-fledged price war between BT, Telewest and NTL. From 1 April BT cut wholesale prices for broadband from £25 per month to £14.75. The UK is currently lagging so far behind most of its peers in the take-up of broadband services that the situation has become something of an embarrassment for the Government. Many law firm IT directors have high hopes for better, cheaper services as the providers get serious about keeping their customers happy.
And law firms should be high on the companies’ priority lists. According to a recent survey across all sectors of commerce and industry by Eurobell, a division of UK cable group Telewest, the legal sector is the third-biggest spender on international calls. Seen in this light, it is strange that none of the very large players in the market are focusing specifically on the legal sector. “You would expect more of a divisional focus from the likes of BT and Cable & Wireless: we are not treated as a market with huge potential, which is what we are,” says Derek Southall, head of strategic development at Wragge & Co. It is also hard to see why, if firms are spending so much on telecommunications, relatively few are using voice over internet protocol (VoIP), which can deliver huge cost savings.
