I would break up their absolute monopoly so that customers have choice. I'd make them directly accountable to customers instead of hiding behind ISPs. I'd set customer performance targets with tough financial penalties. I'd pass legislation to compel house builders and infrastructure companies like Virgin and Openreach to plan connectivity into new builds where offered so they're working from day one. I'd look into the possibility of public prosecution against Openreach for gross negligence. I'd sell them off so that BT can't touch them. Can't be any worse than it is now.

Question, so if a developer in John O'Groats builds new homes, Virgin Media must have service available from day one of person moving in?

Be an interesting share issue if Openreach was sold based on those set of rules and actions

Perhaps better to ignore Openreach totally and encourage alternates to be more widely available?

How would you break up their monopoly to ensure customer have choice?

Would you break it up in to lots of small area based companies? Wouldn't that just mean that costs would go up (ie lack of economy of scale and difficulties getting investment) and could also end up in the US situation where people still only have one choice in a particular area.

Also, over half the country is not an Openreach monopoly - and that percentage is growing as alternates and VM increase coverage.

It is easy to say break them up but the alternative could be very much worse.

Rather than ranting have you actually bothered to think about what you are proposing? I suspect not otherwise you wouldn't have made such a ridiculous post. As for new builds the responsibility for arranging a service rests with the developer and it is the developer through the planning process that needs to ensure the provision of adequate services and not the service provider of which there are potentially many.

4 people with 4 devices each connecting simultaneously. Seems a bit much!

In reply to a post by edwinbradford:

I'd make them directly accountable to customers instead of hiding behind ISPs. I'd set customer performance targets with tough financial penalties.

How would Openreach be directly accountable to customers, (do you mean end users?), for customer performance targets, when Openreach have no facility whatsoever to provide an internet service to end users?

It's possible that line rental could be sold direct to end users, but that's about all.

How would you legislate for the above anyway if you had already split up Openreach into something you haven't defined? As in "That gives me plenty of time before their visit to write to OFCOM and the government about how pathetic Openreach are and how they should be broken up".

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

Regarding your choice of provider, it does not seem an amazing deal given the £44 install fee and the fact you will need to buy a new router if you want something decent.

TalkTalk is £27 including new line
Sky is also cheaper than NowTV.

You only get 2Mbps upload and you're tied into an 18month contract for that price with TT

Sky's standard pricing for unlimited fibre is actually dearer, and also ties you into an 18 month contract, and the setup/install fee is currently £59.95, and you get the same [censored] router

http://www.sky.com/shop/broadband-talk/fibre-optic/#...

The Now TV Combo deal with no contract, and a TV pass thrown in looks like a reasonable deal in comparison to me....

Edited by Davey_H (Wed 19-Apr-17 15:29:30)

In reply to a post by broadband66:

4 people with 4 devices each connecting simultaneously. Seems a bit much!

Depends really. There are 2 of us here but the following are connected 24/7:

1. Smart TV WIFi
2. Kindle Fire HD stick
3. Epson WiFi Printer
4. TV Set Top Box
5. PS4
6. Xbox
7. iPad (pretty much always at home)

& we only have the 1 TV. Plenty of families have 1 main living room TV, then kids have a TV with ps, xbox or whatever, most of these new TVs are smart. So I tip plenty of homes have 16 devices "just online" without doing anything.

The ones above rarely if ever get fully turned off. Then we both have a work phone and personal phone, so if we are both home you have the following auto connecting.

8. iPhone Work - me
9. iPhone Personal - me
10. iPhone Work - not me
11. iPhone Personal - not me

Again where they have 4+ people there might be more tablets, more phones, more kindles etc.

Then say I fire up the work laptop to do some work, that's 12 devices online, when actually I have only manually connected 1 device. All other 11 are just online by us both being in the home, even if they are not in use.

When I lived with 5 people we used to have 30+ devices online some evenings.

Interestingly when I had Sky, we had these constant reboots, and when Sky said it's because we have more than 16 devices connected, we at first only thought we had about 10. It really adds up when you count everything.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Wed 19-Apr-17 15:41:25)

Yes I read up on that. Not sure if the new Smart Box is as bad as the older model, many of the complaints may relate to the latter. You can use another router, a Sky Q Hub going cheap on Ebay or plug a router into the Ethernet port and use it as a wireless access point. It's not prohibited it just won't get any technical support.

Your points one and two are valid but won't be an issue for me. I'm right next to the router and only have four or five devices between two people. I already have a router so I don't need to buy one if I decide to use it and the £44 connection charge is for a one month contract. It's only £22 for a twelve month contract.

£44 connection charge for fibre on a one month contract is a fantastic deal. My old provider, rated in the top two by ISPreview users, charged me £40 to terminate my old connection and wanted £80 to connect a new ADSL line (Openreach). Pulse8---also highly rated---wanted £80 + £50 for ADSL connection and £178.50 for fibre connection. Again Openreach charges.

There are cheaper deals yes but Talk Talk residential score way below Sky for customer service, I'm sure you're aware that NOW TV is owned by Sky. Finally where are you getting your figures from? Sky is £29 a month plus £60 connection charge for fibre on an *18 month* contract which is out of the question for me. http://www.sky.com/shop/broadband-talk/broadband-com...

Anyway, thanks for contributing and the forewarning. The router support is a minus point but I think I can deal with it.

I received a phone call from NOW TV this afternoon. Openreach can not supply me with fibre because the cabinet is full. They cancelled the order.