Logic behind LLU'd exchange choices ?

Just visited www.samknows.com as I'm longing for the day when a decent LLU provider comes to my town (Andover in Hampshire), at the moment specificaly Easynet/Sky, and I was surprised at the choices Sky have made in regards to exchanges they have unbundled.

samknows states that my exchange services '18,167 residential premises' and looking at recent Sky LLU installations I see them LLU'ing exchanges with '9,239 residential premises', where's the logic there ?.

I doubt that anyone can shed any light on how they make their choices so this is probably a rant from me more than anything else ?

Sky are way ahead on their LLU upgrade path, as reported to day in their Interim Results.

At this rate they will hit their target quicker than before planned and I think you will find that their upgrade path just keeps gaining momentum.

Hang on in there - they will do it.

err and just where have Sky said that they will unbundle every exchange in the country?

I would imagine its either due to location and proximity to the Easynet network or theres some competetive thinking going on whereby they look at who's unbundling in the vicinity and jump in first to nab customers before the likes of Be, Ukonline etc get a foothold.

samknows states that my exchange services '18,167 residential premises' and looking at recent Sky LLU installations I see them LLU'ing exchanges with '9,239 residential premises', where's the logic there ?.

maybe the locations with 9,239 residential premises has a higher sky tv subscription rate than the one with 18,167, or maybe there is a high or trend on churn rate with the 18,167 location for sky tv subscription.

Not quite sure what their logic is either.

My exchange has only 8354 residential connections:

Exchange name: Polesworth
Exchange code: EMPOLSW
Location: Warwickshire,
West Midlands
Postcode: B781DY
Maps: Our map | Multimap | Streetmap
Serves (approx): 8,354 residential premises
197 non-residential premises

And Easynet unbundled. There are no other LLU providers at this exchange.

If a few businesses take the Easynet services, adding the Sky/UK Online options are less of a problem.

Distance to existing Easynet network is important, so exchange A may be enabled as a stepping stone to reaching exchange B

Sky should also know how many subscribers it has in an area, and it may be the smaller town has a better proportion of Sky customers already

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I think this ...

Distance to existing Easynet network is important, so exchange A may be enabled as a stepping stone to reaching exchange B

Sky should also know how many subscribers it has in an area, and it may be the smaller town has a better proportion of Sky customers already

... more than likely sums up the reason why my town has not been unbundled yet. It should be by summer 07 which is not that far away to be honest.

Sky are about 3 months ahead of their plans, so like I said hang on in there - don't ask how I know just believe me.

Sorry cant read any of my posts where I said that, bear in mind though Sky now have 50% of the UK covered, their plans are for 70% of the UK by end of 2008.

At the rate they are going it will be 70% by end of 2007.

Obviously they are going for the possible NTL/Blueyonder/Virgin Media customers, before they get chance to sign up to the new deals (if any) that are launched when Virgin Media rebrands.