Re: Lets all bash the British company
- Insisting on keeping copper isn't a problem. The problem is that the copper isn't backed by anything at the exchange. VDSL over copper can do amazing things, way more than they actually ever achieve, and nobody is dictating what happens past the cabinet.
- Wholesale cost BB? You mean more than just about every developed country while providing much less in return? BT have had DECADES of opportunity to get their costs down by doing the above.
- "Not insisting VM and altnets also wholesale to encourage demand led installation" - given that almost all that consists of is NTL's bankrupt cable business, and Hull's sole ISP, that's not something you can just regulate. If you did, you'd be forcing OpenReach to take it all on, and providing new installs too. Pretty much the bit that's not happening is new installs, VM rarely cover any area at all that isn't already well covered by BT/OR cabling.
- "not enforcing standards based fibre installation to ensure we see the same standard of fibre installations across the nation permitting access level competition for all installs not just BT wholesale" VM is DOCSIS3. BT chose VDSL. Both are well-established standards. Everything else doesn't matter as it's IP transit... the beauty of IP is nobody cares what box is at either end so long as it talks IP. ISPs haven't had to have banks of modems, one per active customer, for decades.
"At least they pay uk taxes and are accountable to uk rules and regs, which is not the case with VM owned by US giant Liberty Media off the back of debt acquired by the smaller cable operators who pay(ed) little to no tax due to paying interest and repayments on previous loans which may now not be in the UK anymore thereby dodging taxes on profits the loan company (LM subsidiary or close related business) may make."
They bought up businesses with the only asset being a cable in the road and enormous debt. Pretty much penalising them because they're not English is about the worst argument you can make (where are all the British-operated companies putting in new connections or buying up the NTL stock? Oh, that's right, nowhere...)
I'm far from a nationalist (I think it's silly to blindly cheerlead for an entire nation just because you were an accident of its geography). But all I see is a shitty long-term, ex-nationalised UK company messing up the entire industry for everyone via monopolistic practices, and the only serious rival being foreign. I know what that tells me about my nation.
And I've dealt with more than enough "highly skilled" installation, civils and management people for BT/OR to know that I'd rather they were on the dole queue and having to prove their utility rather than the shitshow we get at the moment.
You want a fix? Nationalise Openreach. Make the infrastructure government-paid-for, force it to provide a line upon request within a year wherever the person is in the country, charge a standard rate to everyone to cover the long-term costs of everything. ISPs then provide the IP service at the other end. Like it used to be... get a telephone line from a government department, but who you pay for phone calls is up to you.
No need to standardise on one tech. No need to scrap copper. No need to steal the business of the only rival who has their own infrastructure, or pay off their debts for them. Unless, of course, they go somewhere you don't (vanishingly rare) in which case you might want to buy a deal with them rather than them have to buy a deal with you.
And every time you build / repair a road or pavement... put a tube full of fibres along it and a cabinet at every junction point.
Increased internet costs for everyone for 5 years. Then everyone with access to broadband. Then a highly-redundant and high-capacity network to back it all. Then no "separate line rental". Then no BT install farce. Then you can call it a utility like any other.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
