Broadband

[whiskeryron]

Can anyone explain to me why BT have the monopoly on land line telephone connections in the UK. We use BT for both telephone & broadband & at the moment are having problems receiving both, as we live in a VERY poor mobile reception area we are reliant on the land line working correctly. We have had a BT engineer visit us who it would appear could not correct the fault & we are now waiting for another visit next week. My question is if we decided to take our business elsewhere it would appear that all broadband suppliers except cable companies have to use BT telephone lines so any problems involving the incoming telephone line would inevitably involve BT which would of course complicate things because we would have a situation whereby a different company using the line could say '' the problem is not ours'' & BT could of course say the same. I am interested to see what other ABers opinions are on this matter.

[sunny-dave]

Just an issue of cost WR - no other company will ever run conventional wiring direct to peoples' houses.

It was a big fudge to allow BT to retain control of the exchange buildings plus associated cabinets and lines to individual properties.

The fiction that BT OpenReach is a separate company and that BT Broadband has no preferential treatment is a load of dingo's kidneys.

You are (unfortunately) right about the difficulty of placing blame for a fault if you use (say) TalkTalk for broadband - a nightmare and full of unexpected charges too if my experience is anything to go by.

[Old_Geezer]

I'm unaware of a restriction stopping another company running their wires locally if they wish, but no one seriously expects them to do so. They be forever, if at all, recouping the cost. However cable firms have run fibre around the country is you are looking for an alternative.

Yes the situation is not good when the network owner is different from the service supplier because they can point at each other. And since BT lost the real monopoly and had to let others use their network they are less keen on doing more than remote checking without warning you that if it proves not to be a BT fault you are responsible for all the costs. Thus is one of the costs of having competition.

[whiskeryron]

// However cable firms have run fibre around the country is you are looking for an alternative. //

NOT unfortunately where we live OG.

[Old_Geezer]

That's unfortunate. Is there a satellite option available to you ? I ask because I know there used to be such an option but even then I think there was something about using a landline for uploading. Probably a bit of a long shot.

[Gizmonster]

I'm assuming that Virgin isn't available in your area, which is a shame, as it's completely independent from BT :(

[whiskeryron]

Correctly assumed Gizmonster we are quite rural & Virgin at the moment only operate in urban areas.

I think O_G Satellite would probably be the answer but probably too expensive.

Thanks for your replies.