BT at it again Sub-loop unbundling pricing

I've been considering moving over to Digital Region's FTTC service. But one thing that is putting me off is the one-off setup cost of £75. Compared to BT's own FTTC, this is a significant difference that's passed onto the customer. Well it seems like BT have been unfairly charging extra for services they aren't providing and including costs for things like ceasing the line in the set up charge! As one service provider ranted, they've put the cost in there expecting SLU providers to fail.

Anyway, it looks like Ofcom ruled against BT and they have to refund Digital Region with any unnecessary charges once the new costs have been detailed.

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/enforcement/competi...

Take a read at the responses at the bottom of the page, a few different service providers weighed in on the dispute. Some of them are really really long and wordy. Some of them read like a good old rant against BT's anti-competition practices. hehe

I knew there was a valid reason to hate BT. Monopolistic thugs.

Edited by LeJimster (Mon 12-Sep-11 03:45:03)

BT Retail are absorbing some of the Openreach £80+VAT setup costs, other ISPs pass them on for example IDNet :

"There is a one-off activation fee of £96 (inc-VAT) which includes the installation of a VDSL modem by a BT engineer."

Openreach have notified the price changes following the Digital Region complaint and OFCOM ruling - see http://yarwell.blogspot.com/2011/09/bt-tweak-sub-loo... - but prepare to be underwhelmed !

Digital Region is increasingly looking like a stillborn public sector white elephant.

What I found interesting is that Talk Talk were looking to use Digital Region in South Yorkshire, but it looks like it's just as cheap or cheaper to stay with BT to provide FTTC currently.

Just read the link, looks like they've not done enough to satisfy the Ofcom ruling imo. I expect to hear more complaints in the future. I feel sorry for these companies, they put in all the hard work and BT just snuffs them out with a crazy pricing structure.

It wouldn't be so bad if BT were fast at providing new services and had the best network etc.. But they've shown themselves to be extremely slow on uptake, poor network management and the worst customer service department I've ever dealt with. It's why I refuse to ever go back to them. It's looking like I'll have to suck it up and pay extra for DRL connection, I'm just worried they'll go out of business and some [censored] company will come in and buy it all up.

Edited by LeJimster (Mon 12-Sep-11 18:01:01)

The pricing was known at the outset for Digital Region, they have failed to get retailers on board (for whatever reason) so their business model is broken.

Attacking BT's costs is one aspect, but the 200 lb gorilla is that virtually nobody knows DR exists. Had they signed up ISPs at the outset that have an existing userbase then it would have been a different story.

There are inconsistencies in BT pricing that OFCOM didn't tackle and it would be silly if Openreach end up duplicating FTTC in SYRD region when the taxpayer has built it already. Maybe the plan is for SYDR to go titsup.com and BT to buy it in a fire sale.

>>but the 200 lb gorilla is that virtually nobody knows DR exists.

IMHO the 200lb hammerblow was awarding the contract to Thales rather than Openreach.