Question, Will this country ever get a 21st century telecom network while it is in the hands of a private company?
Here is an e-mail I sent to Ofcom about a week ago. I am still awaiting a reply
Dear Sir/Madam,
This is an enquiry about a subject that I am finding extremely frustrating and I feel that there are probable many thousands in my position. I am writing to you at Ofcom as you are the regulator of this industry and feel that not enough is being done to address this issue by yourselves.
When will areas like mine that have particularly long lines on the local loop, mine is just under 4K, ever get an acceptable service? It seems the rest of the world and large parts of this country are just leaving us behind. As an example, my son who is in Preston, gets a cable service recently increased to 20mb for just £27 pm, which includes telephone and television. Until last week I was getting a telephone and broadband package of just over 1mb for around £45 pm. I have changed ISP now and only pay £20 pm for much the same package.
The point I am trying to make is it doesn't matter what ISP I sign up with, until there is a will to upgrade the cabling in mine and other areas, nothing will change. I understand that BTW are rolling out fibre optic cabling in many areas over the next 5 years, but
a/ There is no guarantee that it will happen in this area
b/ If it does happen I understand from what I have read that we will be charged a lot more for it which I think is unfair because of point C
c/ If we get fibre optics in this area it will be FTTC which means from the cabinet to my house will still be old cabling and in many areas, and I am led to believe mine in one of them, this old cabling is aluminium. What this means is there would be considerable signal loss from the cabinet to the house, so I could end up with a service no better or even worse than my son is currently getting now but costing more.
d/ I have read an article online that infers that BTW's fibre optic rollout with be vastly underfunded and inadequate. It goes on to say that it will also only be just enough of an investment to maintain favourable conditions with Ofcom.
So as you can see I am disillusioned about the whole situation and feel that privatisation of the telecom network has led to these inequalities that look set to continue indefinitely. Networks like Road, Rail and telecoms should be state run and maintained and private business can then use these networks on a level playing field to promote competition. If this had remained the case in this country, the whole network could have been upgraded to fibre optics probably at less cost than Northern Rock or the Olympics. The commercial opportunities to this outcome would have been immense. At the moment, due to the constraints of privatisation, there doesn't appear to be any commercial incentive for BTW to upgrade its network in many areas.
I would appreciate some concrete evidence to the contrary about my situation but suspect none will be forthcoming.
Any Thoughts?