the wrong kind of Broadband

Just tried to apply for broadband, with Tesco.net, the online upgrade wizard
claims that broadband is not available in the area.
The address is a residential home, of which a number of the residents
already have broadband.
Thinking, ah, its a new number (a couple of months old) maybe it isnt on the
BT database, lets ring Tescos, and see if it can be sorted out there.
I must say, I have had to contact Tesco.net for a couple of issues, their
staff have answered the phone within a few rings, and have been extremely
helpful and accomodating, but on this they couldnt help.

I explained to the customer service person, that we where applying for
broadband, and maybe the telephone number isnt in their database etc, but
broadband is certainly available in the immidiate area.

However, we where told that Tescos is unable to provide broadband because
the exchange doesnt offer the write kind of data stream.

I realise that BT wholesale offer different products to ISPs, different
pricing arrangements and methodologies, but I wasnt aware that an enabled
exchange could be limited to one kind of stream....

Trying to explain this to a confused seventy year old man was not easy......

Buggers.....
Is it common for exchanges to not offer both products? Does this not add an
unnecessary level of confusion for end users?

Gaz

Why are you applying for broadband with Tesco when you can get cheap
broadband with a proper isp like Plusnet or freedom2surf?

"Gaz" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:42c19799$0$30838$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Just tried to apply for broadband, with Tesco.net, the online upgrade
> wizard claims that broadband is not available in the area.
> The address is a residential home, of which a number of the residents
> already have broadband.
> Thinking, ah, its a new number (a couple of months old) maybe it isnt on
> the BT database, lets ring Tescos, and see if it can be sorted out there.
> I must say, I have had to contact Tesco.net for a couple of issues, their
> staff have answered the phone within a few rings, and have been extremely
> helpful and accomodating, but on this they couldnt help.
>
> I explained to the customer service person, that we where applying for
> broadband, and maybe the telephone number isnt in their database etc, but
> broadband is certainly available in the immidiate area.
>
> However, we where told that Tescos is unable to provide broadband because
> the exchange doesnt offer the write kind of data stream.
>
> I realise that BT wholesale offer different products to ISPs, different
> pricing arrangements and methodologies, but I wasnt aware that an enabled
> exchange could be limited to one kind of stream....
>
> Trying to explain this to a confused seventy year old man was not
> easy......
>
> Buggers.....
> Is it common for exchanges to not offer both products? Does this not add
> an unnecessary level of confusion for end users?
>
> Gaz
>

"Bacon" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:42c1998e$0$41939$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Why are you applying for broadband with Tesco when you can get cheap
> broadband with a proper isp like Plusnet or freedom2surf?
>

I personally use plusnet, no problem. But the individual was originally
wanting a dialup, Tesco offered a good price, and when telephoning them,
their customer service was first rate.
Having experienced the terror that is Tiscali (spit), Aol and Demon, i
appreciate good customer service, they gave me confidence they would be able
to talk through the elderly person i was assisting, if they ever needed to,
because if they couldnt, i would get the phone call.

Their service has been faultless so far.

Gaz

In article <42c19799$0$30838$(E-Mail Removed)>,
Gaz <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>Thinking, ah, its a new number (a couple of months old) maybe it isnt on the
>BT database, lets ring Tescos, and see if it can be sorted out there.

When I moved my number from ntl: to BT it took about a day for my ntl:
phone number to come up as broadband capable on BT's availability
checker - so they can update pretty quickly.

Zane.

If you want a can of baked beans or a loaf of bread then go to Tesco.

"Reg Edwards" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:d9s8hh$c20$(E-Mail Removed)...
> If you want a can of baked beans or a loaf of bread then go to Tesco.

If you want a dial up internet with good customer service, also go to
Tescos.

Why would BT Wholesale restrict an exchange to one kind of product, and why
would an ISP restricts its market to one kind of product?

Gaz

On Tue, 28 Jun 2005 21:12:15 +0100, "Gaz" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>Why would BT Wholesale restrict an exchange to one kind of product, and why
>would an ISP restricts its market to one kind of product?

BT don't. NTL who provide Virgin, Tesco and NTL Freedom use
"datastream" which means they have to have a Virtual Path to that
exchange and have booked some ADSL line ports.

On smaller exchanges it used to be very common to find that Tiscali,
Telefonica, NTL and other Datastream operators weren't present - due
to lack of demand.

In this case either the existing provision is full or they haven't
made any, so you get to wait till they rectify the situation.

The ISP has made this choice to reduce its costs.

Phil
--
Tiscali - dialup speeds at Broadband prices, see
http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/postlist...&Board=tiscali

AOL - the unlimited ISP of choice for heavy downloaders.

Gaz wrote:
>
> If you want a dial up internet with good customer service, also go to
> Tescos.
>
I disagree. I've just left Tesco to go to broadband on Freedom2surf.

Tesco's dialler is worse than having a virus, the news server is slow,
their website doesn't render correctly on my browser ( Mozilla ) and
when I tried to upgrade my dial-up account the procedure was a shambles
and didn't work. Besides, it's just NTL in a different guise.

Freedom2surf has worked perfectly and it has that rarity - a cancel
option on the website. There's confidence for you.

On the other hand, I always try to shop at Tesco because they don't play
that confounded music which drives me mad at Morrisons.



--
Change nospam to webtribe in e-mail address

"Gaz" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:42c1af26$0$30802$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> "Reg Edwards" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:d9s8hh$c20$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> If you want a can of baked beans or a loaf of bread then go to Tesco.
>
> If you want a dial up internet with good customer service, also go to
> Tescos.
>
> Why would BT Wholesale restrict an exchange to one kind of product, and
> why would an ISP restricts its market to one kind of product?
>
> Gaz
>

Tesco broadband is provided by ntl, and they are one of the ISPs that use a
Datastream service from BT, as do Tiscali, for example. For this, BT
provide a dedicated ISP connection from your exchange, and this will not be
available if ntl or whoever have not asked (paid!) BT to provide it. With
the alternative BT IPStream, ISPs share connections provided by BT.
Apparently, these usually have much higher capacity, and most ISPs use
IPStream. See adslguide.org.uk for vast amounts of info on ISPs etc etc.

Trevor Morris

"Gaz" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:42c1af26$0$30802$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> "Reg Edwards" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:d9s8hh$c20$(E-Mail Removed)...
> > If you want a can of baked beans or a loaf of bread then go to Tesco.
>
> If you want a dial up internet with good customer service, also go to
> Tescos.
>
> Why would BT Wholesale restrict an exchange to one kind of product, and
why
> would an ISP restricts its market to one kind of product?
>
> Gaz

Tesco, like Virgin, is really NTL hence datastream.