ENRAGED bosses of a Scottish computer systems company claim they were recently lured to York to set up a northern sales office partly by assurances that it could be linked to ADSL, the super broadband facility.

Access Computing, which has just moved into Regency House on the York Business Park, say they would have hesitated in signing the five year lease had they been told by BT that the connection was technically impossible. Now the firm is seeking compensation.

Paul Simpson, Access Computing's northern sales manager for the Livingstone company, said: "This site was supposed to have been a special BT 'e.location'. We contacted BT weeks ago saying we wanted ADSL which is so much cheaper and faster than ISDN and they said 'no problem'.

"BT engineers turned up and installed an ADSL box on the wall above our server. Then two days later - on the day it was to have been connected - we had a call to say that the exchange which served us was not ADSL-enabled and wouldn't be. It was a terrible shock.

"Of course we could have used ISDN but because we are high users our costs would have escalated to the point where it wouldn't be feasible."

He added that being without e-mail or Internet connection would not help his sales staff. The company's website featured the northern office's new address and phone number as the only point of contact.

Now, he says, he has been forced to order via BT phone exchange a dedicated "leased fibre line" direct to service provider uunet - formerly pipex - in Cambridge.

"It's ten times more expensive and eight time slower. We are miffed with BT to say the least."

Anne Crowther, BT's northern public relations manager, said: "We don't understand the allegation that BT put the box on the wall and then said that ADSL was unavailable because clearly it was never available at York Business Park.

"When a customer places an order for ADSL they do so through their Internet service provider and it is the ISP who determines whether it is available on the customer's exchange or not. Therefore the ISP was wrong.

"ADSL upgrades the old-technology copper wires. Our three e-locations in the city - at the Science Park, Holgate Business Park and York Business Park - all use fibreoptics which is faster than copper wire.

"It is more expensive because of the greater band width and more possibilities. although it might not be faster because there are cheaper, less-fast options using fibre."