How will the Digital Economy Bill help you?

You believe wrong Julian– as I have said many times in the past Virgin has its OWN street ducting -its OWN cables to which BT are BANNED . In addition to this when a new housing estate is built all the other telecommunications companies are given the ability to contribute FINANCIALLY to the digging up,of roads/ the ducting ALL the way to the customers home –they ALL refuse to pay , this NOW gives BT exclusive rights to those homes just the same as some come to Which and complain that BT cant provide a line to them because OTHER companies have the rights to their home. BT is a PRIVATE company -you voted for it , you shouted out loud about it –and HMG listened to you , now you complain because its acting like a private company with shareholders , where is the equity in that ?

George I can sympathize with your post ,but as I put something a lot milder elsewhere about government policy and got it ” under moderation ” maybe I should change my name to George.

George – on what basis do you consider that there would be no “greedy bosses” if essential services were nationalised? Before they were privatised, the state-run industries were overrun by fat cats and big pigs with their snouts in the trough. There were more of them too as a percentage of management grades because they had monstrous hierarchies with boards and committees stuffed with fellow travellers on the self-indulgent gravy train. Once these organisations were sold off the stream-lining started and the squeals could be heard all around but, miraculously, service quality generally improved and consumer prices for many products and services actually fell in real terms.

I can see what you are saying, George, but in the glory days of the nationalised industries any surpluses were just wasted on unnecessary or over-priced schemes and activities. Most nationalised industries had to be bailed out by the taxpayer – more than once in some cases. Utility company profits are in the 2-3% bracket – not a profligate amount. Investors only buy the shares because they are reliable and provide a portfolio with ballast, or because they are hoping for a take-over bid so they can sell them at a profit.

I was a fan of the gas and electricity boards when there was little alternative, Natalie, but they did lose their way towards the end. On a trading basis some of the gas and electricity boards were making surpluses but they were not covering the capital investment requirements of the industries and the price of their main raw material – coal – was artificially manipulated by the government. The showrooms were outstanding and some of them had lecture theatres and demonstration rooms, but they had a virtual monopoly of appliance sales which stifled innovation and development [their chief competitor was the Co-op which was hardly in the forefront of retail progress in those days].

I wouldn’t hold your breath I just left them they will say tried to contact you regarding this and you not reply so matter must be resolved ha this is via text of which you cannot reply ! Took over 7 months with them and countless phone calls that supposed to be recorded to be told you have not rang them .

Michael-BT state they have covered 90 % of NI with fibre , that means FTTC .If you live in a remote area that reduction from £10,000 to approx $5,400 is a big drop and is par for the coarse in the prices I have been advising those in mainland Britain would be charged under the same circumstances . What you would get is a minimum of 80Mbps but more probably nearer the top end it should not matter how long the fibre run is if its direct to you-FTTP/H . If you are provided overhead as most country areas are it will be run that way , a box placed on your building and fibre run straight to your modem . This work is labour intensive therefore a big charge . Years ago in places like Milton Keynes it was installed for a small nominal sum during its trials but that is now over . It could takes weeks or months to install depending on field logistics ( staff availability ) , it would be a week or two after the box was provided for the engineer to connect to the modem and “talk ” to the exchange equipment side to get it going . Every case is different due to different locations so saying a set time is almost impossible, if you lived in an area that was installing it as a matter of policy then it would be a lot quicker but individual applications for it in remote areas are hard to judge therefore BT is non-committal due to people suing them for wrong contractual statements ( phone calls can constitute a contract now ) . BT also have to cover themselves , what if after you got it in you said -right I am changing suppliers , hence the contract.

If it is a “ruse ” Derek , then the latest figures of providing FTTP/H of £5000 ( approx) is also a “ruse ” and then BT would be lying but they do offer that with a guaranteed minimum of ( approx ) 80Mbps going up to 330Mbps you are forced to take out a long term contract so you dont change ISP,s as soon as the work is done. But that isnt relevant if you cant afford it . Being practical , if BT has admitted the overhead wiring isnt good you can take that to mean–its old and patched up , renewing that doesnt cost a fortune and depending on the number of spans maybe two days work at most , as the old wiring will have increased in loop resistance . Do you get noise+crackle/hum on it ? if you do you can ask for it to be renewed for zero cost.

I respect companies that are honest about problems. Duncan is right that you should ask for the old wiring to be replaced and if you are hearing noise on the phone, that provides evidence that there is a problem.

Christine , as both an installation engineer and maintenance engineer working for BT sometime before it was sold off up until around 1990 , I dont accept all you say I worked conscientiously in both departments first of all helping to increase the daily installations to 3 provides a day at least and when on the maintenance worked 6 days a week + 2 nights overtime, no slacking there. And remember that was in the days when engineers did everything except underground plant repair, which an underground dept. carried out , and ,unlike today we were out in snow drifts , heavy rain , you name it climbing 40 foot poles with ice on them , working on roofs with no scaffold or this new generation hydraulic towers . I came home dirty , wet , frozen but I carried on . THe union had a FREE installation system for severely handicapped people living alone in isolated areas where ALL the work was done in ONE day including the exchange work with the old strowger equipment , I have knee and other problems as a result , including a bad back problem so I resent any implication we were lazy or not up to the job . Of coarse BT has old plant as they were the original GPO but when asked by the government to provide Britain with Fibre and given tax payer grants to help ALL the other so called “good ” private companies said —NO ! why because there was no big profit in it for the shareholders all they were concerned with was taking business from BT by the easiest method Cities/ large towns where the most up to date plant was –ask them to provide to small rural areas Christine and what do you get -uh no ! . Dont you realise it will cost 10,s of £Billions to provide FTTP/H we are talking Defense money ? Are you willing to pay using your taxes . FTTC is still not enough if you are miles from the cabinet your broadband connection will not be a lot better than copper maybe go from 2Mbps up to 8 Mbps but if you are in the country with miles of overhead wiring dont expect any real improvement , do you see Virgin et al running to provide those highly expensiveness cable runs -shareholders -no way !

Okay if you have a good 3G/4G signal John and you need to be within 30 feet of it. Up to 5 people can use it although that will slow it down. Downloads are dependent on the rental paid/month , contracts are 24 months, unless you want low data downloads. On the plus side , if you have a bad landline connection and a good cell-net signal it might do the job.

They cant do that if its Virgin Media and its smaller clones, notable in Central London area Martin , they can only take the blame themselves as they have their own ducts and cable + equipment . Also take into account many telecommunications companies have their OWN equipment in BT,s exchanges thats part of the Telecommunications Act , so before you blame BT check out your own ISP to see what it uses. Also if any private company installs cable/ducting to a new estate or area then its up to that company to look after the equipment as BT has no access to it . Things are more complicated now in the telecommunications world as far as the law is concerned.

Tony-cleaning services were contracted out by the NHS a long time ago and the instances of diseases picked up by patients rose dramatically , I worked in the NHS and also was a patient in many hospitals when younger .In those days the Matron came round to check the wards and EVERYTHING had to be s**c+span and ” god help” the staff if it was not, they had their own employed staff to do the cleaning and a good job they did , as it was checked regularly , I watched both the cleaning and checking , we even had to sit to attention (if we could ) in our beds Matron was “god ” in a hospital. Now “god ” is a commercially employed/ orientated hospital “manager ” more at home managing the profits rather than the hospital welfare of the patients —and NO ! I am not a “Commie/Red under the bed / Marxist/ I believe in moderate capitalism . why I have to say that I dont know but this country is getting more and more “rednecks ” whose level of thinking doesnt get very high. As an aside my wife worked as a Company Secretary for a large city firm doing office cleaning so I do know about that side of it too.