I have been looking at Virgin cable lately.

Anyone know if it would be frying pan to fire?

Edited by deleted (Thu 29-Nov-12 22:16:41)

What is anti-competitive?

I pay BT retail for a service level. BT Retail will contract with Openreach to provide the same service at a specific cost. TT can choose what ever level of service they want and if they do not want to pay very much then the service level is lower. Openreach will provide whatever service level their customer has asked and paid for - simple.

For disabled customers BT Retail will subsidise the Openreach charges, and TT can do the same if they wish.

There is no reason why another company cannot install an national copper network and provide service over it. But is anyone willing to commit to that expenditure for what is a small and diminishing return?

But there is no other supplier for national copper wire service other than BT or Open Reach. They have a monopoly there is NO alternative. Where is the competiion?

I have never heard of a tired service - what is it called? Where can I get details?

In reply to a post by tomlee:

But there is no other supplier for national copper wire service other than BT or Open Reach. They have a monopoly there is NO alternative. Where is the competiion?

You tell me? TalTalk claim to be wonderful - well if they are that great why don't they build their own copper network? There is nothing to stop them.

In reply to a post by tomlee:

I have never heard of a tired service - what is it called? Where can I get details?

Neither have I. Is it one due to go to bed?

Pardon me- sp mistake . Should have read " I have never heard of a tiered service - what is it called? Where can I get details."

If the country has lost so much of it's phone lines in this wet weather; why? It did not happen in 2007. Is BT using the wrong kind of Glue? What is going on?
NB I am not a great fan of TT. But they were the first in my area to provide Broadband rather than dial up. Their broadband service then went swiftly downhill so I am now with Newnet where you speak to people who get things moving.. But everyone is hog tied by BT.

As a residential customer you don't normally have a choice of service level. BT Retail has a blanket agreement as will others offering a voice or line service..

For Buinsess grade service it is possible with BT to have, Next Business Day, Next Day, 8 hour, 4 hour, 1 hour (onsite) and even a technician on site permanently during the working day or 24 hours/day. However, there is a cost to all of those.

The additional "benefits" that BT Retail provides to specific groups - seriously disabled, blind &c in the form of free Directory Enquiries, rapid response or enhanced repair times is paid for by BT Retail from their revenue stream and they pay Openreach for teh additional services.

If someone offers a cheap service, you need to ask, "What has been removed from or not available in the service offering?"



I don't think that we have lost more lines. Whenever there is a prolonged period of bad weather there will be damage to the network. The solution would be to have twice as many technicians ready and waiting for teh problems - but would you be prepared to pay 50% more for your line rental?

My telegraph pole was hit by a speeding car that split it in two. I was without a telephone service for six weeks. Previously, we have had telephone posts repaired the next day. But now someone comes to assess the damage and because the preceding pole, down line, was judged class D [unsafe to climb with a ladder] it was assessed that very special equipment had to be used.
Eventually a team came from Nottingham [!!!!] we are in south Worcestershire. They decide they did not need the heavy crane equipment or the traffic lights and fitted the new pole within an hour. The Engineers were disgusted at the management of BT.
When I questioned BT about it I got the excuse that there were highly technical problems at my site. Load of tosh!
BT couldn�t organise a Party at a Brewery. Now they are holding the UK to ransom whilst �third world� countries get the best speed and service ever. If I were a share holder I would take my money and run.

I am with TT and am happy with the service but do acknowledge that if a problem develops some people do have problems trying to get it fixed.
I have read reports that Openreach do drag their heels when it is a TT line in question. It may have been on this forum where someone reported that a broken pole was replaced and BT customers reconnected, but a TT customer had to wait for some days despite being fed from the same pole.
If true,why should this be do TT pay for a lesser service?

If things are this bad, then lobby the people holding venture capital to back firms that do use totally alternate networks, e.g. the Virgin Media one that half the country has access to, and if it could write off its billions of debt might expand more.

The regulation of the last 30 years has been to squeeze BT and its elements to make it more attractive for others to invest, alas the investors are not racing to the areas outside the cities, but going to the cities.

One reason Openreach can be so bad, is that when it was formed it was downsized on the engineering staff drastically, and many old hands got early retirement or left, so the knowledge base is not so broad now. Benefit has been that line rental costs have not risen as rapidly as they might of otherwise.