What is the 'last mile loop'

[Jam]

Im doing an essay on the internet, one of the point i have to cover is this 'last mile loop', what is it? Also what effect would it have on internet access in the UK if BT were forced to give up their rights to the last mile loop? please help me because i have no idea what this means!

[nichole]

'the last mile loop' refers to what is called "the local loop" - the last mile of the nation's telecoms networks linking exchanges to houses and offices - Do some searches for "local loop unbundling" which should give you all the info you need. At the moment BT has not given anyone else (rivals) access to this part of the network although they did pledge this back in 2001 - BT's monopoly of 85 per cent of domestic phone lines is largely blamed for the slow take-up of unmetered internet access in the UK, with the telco's stranglehold only now just being loosened by new services from rival CABLE operators.

[lisaj]

To add to nichole's answer: the 'last mile' is the purely in reference to the copper drop into your property: the BT network is not analogue copper, but digital cable or fibre optic for the most part; you may well find you have a green switch box almost just outside your front door, and apaprently it's here that the digital signal is unbundled and converted to analogue for delivery to your home. That last copper, analogue line is the 'local loop' or the 'last mile'.