Apologies if I misunderstood the USO at 10mb. Virgin I assumed wouldn't be obligated to provide a connection as that would fall to Openreach.

Openreach keep talking of the cab not being in current plans, but to keep checking. Maybe if they were honest and just said it's not going to happen and just find another supplier that might finally settle it.

As for blame, well currently it's BT, next year it'll be Openreach (or whenever they are incorporated).

If fibre turns up then it'll be BT currently and Openreach in the future.

if the area is already has 10 mbps by an operator I cant see why the USO would be required as there would be 10 m/bps - I guess that's one of the things that be fleshed out on the Detail about what and where it has to be deployed

I'm curious to know who you, and others, feel should pay to upgrade commercially unviable cabinets. I don't see why it should be BT any more than we should expect Marks & Spencer, Tesco or any other company to pay. If fast broadband is thought to be a "public service" it should perhaps be paid for by local or central government or perhaps even some charity if not the actual users who will benefit from the upgrade.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

I believe the sad truth in all this is that what we'll end up with is an entirely toothless company trying to dance to the tune of too many taskmasters ...... and the only ones to suffer in the long term will be the public.

Everyone wants it as cheap as chips .... and low cost is NOT the way forward for a progressive telecoms infrastructure.

openreach dont know what everyone wants, as wrongly its CPs who are their customers not the consumers.

Which is evident by the fact you think wrongly that everyone only wants the lowest price.

Market research repeatedly shows that the single largest factor for people in choosing a service provider is value for money.

Of course, majority does not mean every single person. But there is a very logical explanation why the largest ISPs are so aggressive and competitive on their broadband pricing.

The USO is only for places that cannot get 10Mb/s by some method - not just those that can't get it from BT. The other thing is that the current USO for fixed line telephony has a price cap - if the cost of over about £3K then BT do not have to provide and if a user wants it then they pay the extra to enable it. USO does not mean what many people think it does.

I've misread what USO was all about - although it's not exactly clear.

On a related note you have mentioned that some in your area are able to get Virgin cable - can you?

The government paid for BDUK so why not them. Although I mentioned earlier BT decided to upgrade the poor people of Mayfair so their criteria depends on who the chairman is friends with. Maybe the Duke of Westminster could adopt Yardley.

The one thing the public do not know is what the viabiliy criteria is, unless you happen to work for Openreach or maybe know people that work in that area.

Yes, had them for 3 weeks and it was utter carp - Highly congested and Virgin wont do anything about it because they don't have to - where else are their customers going to go? I go back to what I've mentioned before about competition.