Will BT's nomination scheme widen fibre divide?

In areas that BT deems to be commercially weak, the demands are even more stringent, with providers being asked to fund not only the additional deployment costs, but also to cough up for an initial survey of the area that will cost them 5,000.

BT hasn't yet said how it will decide which exchanges are considered "viable", but a spokesman justified the policy on non-viable areas, clarifying: "What we're saying is that we don't think they are viable for us, but other providers might think differently."

To outsiders, however, the scheme looks like an attempt to get other ISPs to underwrite the risks of rollout by asking for financial guarantees in areas not deemed suitable for fibre in the first six phases of the rollout.

"BT is getting people to sign on the dotted line to make sure they're not going to be left with all the costs," said Andrew Ferguson, broadband expert at Thinkbroadband. "It's a bit like if they'd asked everyone on the demand-led ADSL exchange switch-on to give a 20 deposit when they signed up."

However, Ferguson stressed the scheme might appeal to the big players like TalkTalk and other unbundlers, who were eager to get foothold in the fibre-to-the-cabinet market.