Sky dropped connect because it was expensive and was pretty rubbish - wasn't doing their reputation (some may laugh at that) any good.

Then lobby Ofcom. It is down to them to release the shackles from BT.

AIUI TalkTalk are still expanding their coverage. I don't know about Sky.

I also know that samknows is not up to date re BTW WBC availability, so may not be for LLU either. Their page we use I think is rather a minor aspect of what they do these days. See Great Massingham and the imgur link in this post.

It does appear that I could order John Lewis BB at a Market A exchange. After the introductory period the prices rises to about £26.50 and would be £1 pm cheaper than Plusnet broadband during their introductory period. After the introductory period the Plusnet price is £35.48pm

Where is the sense in that?

Thanks to the OP for pointing out the JL option.

Origin Broadband are the cheapest I have found on a Market A exchange.

In reply to a post by ian72:

So, blame Ofcom for not allowing BT to provide lower wholesale prices in Market A.

Ofcom set charge controls on market A wholesale pricing to stop BT Wholesale from over-charging.

Edited by Oliver341 (Tue 31-Jan-17 11:03:33)

There are exceptions Bob. TT and Sky have unbundled my exchange a few years back and still Market A. https://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/EAGLE

Thanks for all the helpful replies. It really does seem a "dog's breakfast".

For info the exchange concerned is MRCHL SK11 9AH. There is limited FTTC for some who may want it but the basic ADSL has not changed for over ten years.

What is particularly confusing is that all the BB checker websites seem to all come up with different figures and some do not even show PN at all!

OFCOM may well be part of the problem but with BB being considered a universal service and down the same line as the telephone I would have thought that a "universal" price would be available in these times.

Hey ho.....!

Meldrew

In reply to a post by meldrew:

OFCOM may well be part of the problem but with BB being considered a universal service and down the same line as the telephone I would have thought that a "universal" price would be available in these times.

It's a complex situation because at the (usually) smaller market A exchanges there a fewer customers, hence lower return on investment. So BT Wholesale charging more on these exchanges is justified, but Ofcom have to set limits otherwise BT Wholesale will abuse their monopoly and charge excessively.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

In reply to a post by ian72:

So, blame Ofcom for not allowing BT to provide lower wholesale prices in Market A.

Ofcom set charge controls on market A wholesale pricing to stop BT Wholesale from over-charging.

Ofcom do both.

The prevent BTW from over-charging, to protect consumers, and prevent BTW from under-charging, to encourage LLU providers to consider the exchange.

The latter control stays in place even after LLU companies turn up, so that the LLU provider can be assured to have competitive advantage for a while, so as to generate some RoI.