Simon

Cumbria

IT

Trying not to just bash BT because we can, I think they must take a lot of the blame - though probably more so teh regulators who have failed to properly control them.

BT have a dominant position - in most areas a virtual monopoly. Until very recently they did have a monopoly of supply in many areas simply because LLU didn't (still doesn't ?) have a viable business case. Therefore many people have no choice - they take a BT broadband line badged by whatever ISP they choose. With that comes whatever restrictions BT chooses to impose.

You don't need to remember much of your telecoms business to know that time and time again, what we have gratiously been allowed to have from BT has often been a watered version of what other countries have to offer - and the main point people have made time and time again is that many of their marketing decisions seem to be based on doing as little damage to their lucrative leased line services as they can get away with. ISDN - no D channel signalling for ages, and when it does come it's in a form that makes it uneconomic for many uses. Broadband - limited uplink speed, contention, and no SLAs, all designed in part to make it inferior to a leased line.

Now BT are a business, and you cannot blame them for wanting to maximise their profitability - and that is the problem. For far too long, we have been in a situation where some pretty serious decisions have been made for the good of BTs shareholders and not the good of the country. All this with just about nothing done by the regulator or government to control it.