BT/Wanadoo & Ofcom on broadband pricing

From http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media_office...ws/nr_20040901
----
Ofcom proposes to make a decision that BT Group plc has infringed Section 18
of the Competition Act 1998 and Article 82 of the EC Treaty in relation to
the company's residential broadband pricing.

Ofcom has therefore sent to BT a Statement of Objections stating the facts
of the case, the matters to which it has taken objection, the action it
proposes and the reasons for this.

The investigation into BT's residential broadband pricing was initiated by
Ofcom's predecessor Oftel after a complaint by Wanadoo UK plc and is
ongoing.

BT now has the opportunity to make written and oral representations in
response to Ofcom's proposed decision. These will be taken fully into
account before any final decision is made.
----

I think this is the 3rd time that Oftel/Ofcom have looked at this now - the
first two times they decided to clear BT of any wrongdoing...

Regards
Sunil

"Sunil Sood" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> From http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media_office...ws/nr_20040901
> ----
> Ofcom proposes to make a decision that BT Group plc has infringed Section 18
> of the Competition Act 1998 and Article 82 of the EC Treaty in relation to
> the company's residential broadband pricing.
>
> Ofcom has therefore sent to BT a Statement of Objections stating the facts
> of the case, the matters to which it has taken objection, the action it
> proposes and the reasons for this.
>
> The investigation into BT's residential broadband pricing was initiated by
> Ofcom's predecessor Oftel after a complaint by Wanadoo UK plc and is
> ongoing.
>
> BT now has the opportunity to make written and oral representations in
> response to Ofcom's proposed decision. These will be taken fully into
> account before any final decision is made.

Ofcom could fine BT up to £400m! Frankly I think that the government should be
encouraging and helping BT to make broadband available everywhere not fining
them because Wanadoo (previously Freeserve) can't make a profit.

From my limited experience of Freeserve, Wanadoo are a company to be avoided if
at all possible. If they cant make a profit with the existing wholesale prices I
would be happy to see them leave the market.

It was the BT wholesale ADSL price reduction announced in Feb 2002 which lead to
the rapid expansion of ADSL. Prior to the price reduction ADSL was an expensive
luxury, after the price reduction it was almost a 'no brainer' for anyone paying
£15 per month for dialup.

Michael Chare

"Michael Chare" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
message news:chcmvh$64o$(E-Mail Removed)...
> "Sunil Sood" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...

> Ofcom could fine BT up to £400m! Frankly I think that the government
should be
> encouraging and helping BT to make broadband available everywhere not
fining
> them because Wanadoo (previously Freeserve) can't make a profit.
>
> From my limited experience of Freeserve, Wanadoo are a company to be
avoided if
> at all possible. If they cant make a profit with the existing
wholesale prices I
> would be happy to see them leave the market.
>
> It was the BT wholesale ADSL price reduction announced in Feb 2002
which lead to
> the rapid expansion of ADSL. Prior to the price reduction ADSL was an
expensive
> luxury, after the price reduction it was almost a 'no brainer' for
anyone paying
> £15 per month for dialup.
>
> Michael Chare
>
At least Wanadoo nee Freeserve provide a reliable Internet service,
which is considerably more than BTOW/BT/Yahoo do.
Regards Mike.



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"Mike GW8IJT" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> "Michael Chare" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
> message news:chcmvh$64o$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> "Sunil Sood" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>> Ofcom could fine BT up to £400m! Frankly I think that the government
> should be
>> encouraging and helping BT to make broadband available everywhere not
> fining
>> them because Wanadoo (previously Freeserve) can't make a profit.
>>
>> From my limited experience of Freeserve, Wanadoo are a company to be
> avoided if
>> at all possible. If they cant make a profit with the existing
> wholesale prices I
>> would be happy to see them leave the market.
>>
>> It was the BT wholesale ADSL price reduction announced in Feb 2002
> which lead to
>> the rapid expansion of ADSL. Prior to the price reduction ADSL was an
> expensive
>> luxury, after the price reduction it was almost a 'no brainer' for
> anyone paying
>> £15 per month for dialup.
>>
>> Michael Chare
>>
> At least Wanadoo nee Freeserve provide a reliable Internet service,
> which is considerably more than BTOW/BT/Yahoo do.
> Regards Mike.

Indeed. I've been with Freeserve (can't and won't say that ridiculous
name..!) for 2 years and have just upped my service from 512k to 1MB for
the same money (£27.99/month). Ok so there's a 30GB limit but I never get
anywhere near it. I could have had a lower download limit (but still at
1MB) for less money but I figured I might need it sometime and I was used
to paying that price.

Ivor

"Mike GW8IJT" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
<snip>
> At least Wanadoo nee Freeserve provide a reliable Internet service,
> which is considerably more than BTOW/BT/Yahoo do.

Well if the reliability I had when using Freeserve PAYG service was like the
service I'm having with BT-broadband I would still be with Freeserve...

When it started to take over 5 min's just to log-on it was time to dump them
and then the help desk (@ 1 GBP per/m) just patriot fashioned telling me to
check my setting (like the hell I hadn't done that already) and then just
telling me that they must just be very busy:~(

On Sat, 4 Sep 2004 17:48:03 +0100, [Mike GW8IJT] said :-

>"Michael Chare" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in
>message news:chcmvh$64o$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> "Sunil Sood" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>> Ofcom could fine BT up to £400m! Frankly I think that the government
>should be
>> encouraging and helping BT to make broadband available everywhere not
>fining
>> them because Wanadoo (previously Freeserve) can't make a profit.
>>
>> From my limited experience of Freeserve, Wanadoo are a company to be
>avoided if
>> at all possible. If they cant make a profit with the existing
>wholesale prices I
>> would be happy to see them leave the market.
>>
>> It was the BT wholesale ADSL price reduction announced in Feb 2002
>which lead to
>> the rapid expansion of ADSL. Prior to the price reduction ADSL was an
>expensive
>> luxury, after the price reduction it was almost a 'no brainer' for
>anyone paying
>> £15 per month for dialup.
>>
>> Michael Chare
>>
>At least Wanadoo nee Freeserve provide a reliable Internet service,
>which is considerably more than BTOW/BT/Yahoo do.

Wrong - it is better for *you*, you cannot generalise. There have
people said bad things about Wanadoo in this very newsgroup.


Also - do you know that wanadoo are hosting a pr0n spammer ? Indeed,
the pr0n spammer has been using and abusing webpages on voila.fr,
perso.wanadoo.es, gratisweb.com and others. Wanadoo ignored this for
over 6 months. It is also possible that gratisweb.com is being used
for illegal stuff.

On Sat, 4 Sep 2004 20:21:40 +0100, ":::Jerry::::" <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>and then the help desk (@ 1 GBP per/m) just patriot fashioned telling me to
>check my setting

Er.... parrot? :-)