Local Loop Unbundled lines have reached the 3million mark according to The Office of the Telecommunications Adjudicator (OTA) August update.

The exact number of LLU lines had reached 2.997 million, but the bad news for customers is the problems involved when moving lines away from BT. When fully unbundled lines, where an ISP takes over provision of both telephone and broadband, are involved there is currently has a 20 per cent failure rate, and things don't make better reading the further you go on, with between 20 and 30 per cent of repairs across partially and fully unbundled lines, and rented wholesale lines failing.

LLU saw a very poor second quarter with the addition of new lines falling from 590,000 in the first three months of the year, to 510,000 between April and July as BT concentrated on repairing lines damaged by flooding across the UK. But things picked up in July with a record 250,000 new lines and an estimated 300,000 in August, doubling total numbers in just over six months.

It seems that the LLU companies still have some way to go if they are serious about becoming an alternative to BT.