Trilogytelecom?

I need some advice about a slightly unusual situation.

As part of one of those 'bring broadband to the sticks' arrangements,
Trilogytelecom is going to enable our exchange (Ashdon) on 15/9/04.

A short time after that was announced, BT changed it's policy and now
says they are going to enable our exchange on 15/12/04.

Being hungry for BB, I'm considering going with Trilogy just to get it
that much sooner.

There seems to be 3 drawbacks to that plan.

1) I'll be locked in to a 12 month contract.

I can live with that, as long as the service is OK and it's not _too_
much more expensive than other providers.

2) They want to take over all my telecoms business.

I think I can get around that by using a line that's dedicated solely to
broadband.

3) I can't find any information about Trilogy other than their website
<http://www.trilogytelecom.co.uk/>

This is what bothers me the most. I'm a bit anxious about being tied for
a year to a company that I know nothing about.

So, given that I'm very eager to have broadband, should I wait for BT,
or chance it?

Any comments or advice would be appreciated.

TIA
Tom
--
My ol' grandaddy taught me to always;
post in plain text,
quote only that portion to which you are replying,
post replies at the bottom.

On 8 Aug 2004 in uk.telecom.broadband, Tom Warner wrote:

>Trilogytelecom is going to enable our exchange (Ashdon) on 15/9/04.
>BT now says they are going to enable our exchange on 15/12/04.

I can understand the dilemma. A friend and I were both eager for BB
back in 2000, and showed interest in the then free-installation deal
from BT Internet. Our local exchange was enabled in August 2001 and
my friend went ahead with the BT installed service at 39.99/month.

I held off, partly on cost, and wanted to see what other options may
arrive. I had HH installed in October 2001, prior to the USB boxes
being installed. I felt I had reasonable speed, having had 56k for
a long time. Then Freeserve offered trial users for 'wires only'
with a fee of 29.99 a month, from December 2001 and I jumped for it.
I had to buy an Alcatel (frog) USB modem for 99.99 (which I later
sold for 75 quid) and later in the year, after others had dropped
the prices, Freeserve dropped the fee (by mistake) to just 19.99
so I was very pleased with service...

In this case you are talking only 3 months. Another friend in Ruthin
was considering a wireless solution at about 30 quid a month from a
local computer shop but fortunately for him (a) he and his family
planned to move, so they no longer would be in wireless range and
(b) the BT trigger level was reached so the options became greater
and costs lower... No idea how many were locked into an annual
contract for the wireless service, but understandably, the local
firm had no way to predict the policy change and early upgrade of
the exchange.

>2) They want to take over all my telecoms business.

>So, given that I'm very eager to have broadband, should I wait for BT,
>or chance it? Any comments or advice would be appreciated.

I'd wait. Even though you can avoid them handling all telecom business
(and anyway, it seems like a straight CPS change, which means any prefix
could be used unless their T+C block that - unlike the cheaper line rent
deal from ITplc at 2/3 or BT line rental charges), their rates are quite
mediocre and you will have the choice of lots of ISPs if you can wait.

On Sun, 8 Aug 2004 16:22:05 +0100, Tom Warner <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> A short time after that was announced, BT changed it's policy and now
> says they are going to enable our exchange on 15/12/04.

I don't think it was really a change in policy, it just evolved to the next
stage.

> I can live with that, as long as the service is OK and it's not _too_
> much more expensive than other providers.

They are a quite a bit more expensive though from what I can remember
seeing.

> 2) They want to take over all my telecoms business.
>
> I think I can get around that by using a line that's dedicated solely to
> broadband.

Don't they have clauses about minimum spend on the telecoms side or
something ?

> 3) I can't find any information about Trilogy other than their website
><http://www.trilogytelecom.co.uk/>
>
> This is what bothers me the most. I'm a bit anxious about being tied for
> a year to a company that I know nothing about.

http://www.cifi.com/forums/ have quite a bit of discussion about them.

I'll still bemused about their use of ADSL2 - I thought this breached the
current ANFP, so it's use would fall foul of the regulations.

Or is it that just ADSL2+ which will need a new ANFP (with VDSL needing a
complete rethink of the ANFP ...)

> So, given that I'm very eager to have broadband, should I wait for BT,
> or chance it?

BT.

"Gareth Babb" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)
> I'll still bemused about their use of ADSL2 - I thought this breached
> the current ANFP, so it's use would fall foul of the regulations.
>
> Or is it that just ADSL2+ which will need a new ANFP

Just ADSL2+ - ADSL2 is fine under the current ANFP

Regards
Sunil