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Author Topic: AAISP  (Read 5406 times)

waltergmw

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AAISP
« on: September 10, 2009, 06:13:14 PM »

The following is a rather blunt public gripe over the difficulties http://aaisp.blogspot.com/ are finding with BT Wholesale's services and equipment. I beleive other ISPs are equally frustrated although they might not broadcast that fact.

However I hope everyone remembers, whether we like it or not, practically ALL non-cable ISPs rely on a properly maintained local loop (hopefully without aluminium) provided by BT Openreach. If the BT Group become "the carrier of last resort" it follows that their revenue will fall substantially. This might starve BT Openreach of capital investment and make matters much worse. I suppose some might suggest that would be the best trigger possible to provide FTTH but I shudder to think of the short and medium term consequences.

Kind regards,
Walter


___________________________________________________________

People not in a BE area

BE only cover around 80% population so many of our customers will not be in a BE area.

We appreciate all of the frank and honest comments from our customers, and we know that on occasion we are the cause of an issue and we take that very seriously. What most customers are expressing to us is concern over the huge number of BT issues and that they feel BT have lost the plot. We do sympathise with you all and understand your frustration.

The fact that we are trialling BE lines and expect to launch a full service offering next month is good news for everyone who can get BE service. It is different, and has different prices. But being different allows the use of BT+BE lines at the same place for a high availability service. Even today's issue (a hardware problem in our equipment) was a matter of seconds of outage for our customers that are doing that already. Our redundant systems worked as planned.

However, there is some good news for those not in BE areas. Basically, BT will not get their act together (as some of you have put it) until they have to. It is serious competition from people like BE that will do that. The fact is that we could move 80% of our lines to BE just like that, and so could a lot of much bigger ISPs. It is only now, in the last few weeks, that a decent wholesale offering has been available from any LLU operator with sensible coverage making it viable for many ISPs to offer an alternative to BT.

We are doing our bit to spread the word and I am talking at a UK network operators forum tomorrow to explain not only the major BT issues we have seen but how, in practical terms, other ISPs can do the same.

It is only by some serious competition like this that BT director level will take notice and sort these huge issues we have all been seeing.

As BT know, we continue to work closely with them at a technical level to help them undertstand and resolve problems. The outcome we want is not to ditch BT, but to encourage BT to provide a quality service again. We put a lot of time and effort in to systems which we then make available to BT to help them resolve issues, and we have even helped with issues we have not reported because we have the technical expertise to do so.

If BT do not make some serious steps forward in the next few months then they will have some serious problems. 21CN is losing credibility. They will become the carrier of last resort for in-fill coverage. Lets hope that does not happen, in which case people not in BE areas will benefit too. That is what we would like to see and so we will have two quality carriers to offer to our customers.

Thank you all for your patience in all of these recent issues, and we'll keep you posted.
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jeffbb

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Re: AAISP
« Reply #1 on: September 10, 2009, 06:26:56 PM »

Hi

quote If the BT Group become "the carrier of last resort" it follows that their revenue will fall substantially

To some extent it is already so . Under the present rules Bt is basically left to provide service where it is not so profitable for other suppliers .

Regards Jeff
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kitz

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Re: AAISP
« Reply #2 on: September 10, 2009, 10:55:48 PM »

I do hope this will at least make BT realise that there are some failings with their systems.. and hopefully make them do something about the adsl2+ glitches.
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waltergmw

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Re: AAISP
« Reply #3 on: September 10, 2009, 11:07:22 PM »

@ Kitz,

I suspect some of the difficulties are due to the culture within BT which some could suggest was in response to the regulators.
Many have commented that BT are a very difficult organisation to deal with and I have found the same in a very small way.
Those at Hambleden near Henley with their non-existent FTTH trial have also been totally frustrated after months of negotiations.
Their seeming arrogance at Muswell Hill is possibly another indicator of this culture.

Kind regards,
Walter
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waltergmw

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Re: AAISP
« Reply #4 on: September 11, 2009, 09:03:18 AM »

Dual redundant systems have been in operation e.g. in the telecontrol business since the 1970s. It seems inconceivable that BT egineers are not aware of IP facilities available. Speaking only from very limited knowledge of the actual situation, I suspect the real problem lies in the remark

BT still do not have a commercial model for us to connect to two nodes even.

in the article below. If so it appears BT have a significant problem to solve in the accountancy process and which might well involve the regulators as well.

Kind regards,
Walter
___________________________________________________________________________
BT single box design, still

We were shocked to learn that BT had a "single box design" for WMBC links to us, where by they have, in each metro node, only one (albeit very large) router. The consequence is that planned maintenance causes 3 to 4 hour outages for customers even if they have multiple (BT) lines. It also makes them vulnerable to vendor specific bugs and issues.

We have been pursuing this with BT for some time. It is unbelievable that anyone running an IP network would not use dual routers and router redundancy.

We were, today, shocked to hear that senior people within BT did not appear to actually understand the issue. Questions raised at the BT ISP forum at BT tower today show that they actually thought that there was a way we could connect on WBMC that would avoid these outages.

The whole point of WBMC is that it replaces BT Central links (where BT come to us) but even with multiple connection points it would not avoid this serious issue. BT still do not have a commercial model for us to connect to two nodes even. We do have dual fibres and routers our end, obviously. We now have dual providers because of this and hope to launch our BE products properly next month.

To be fair, the technical people we deal with in BT fully understand the issues, especially as they have maintain the network and address the consequences of this design.

We hope BT can come back with a response on this and a clear indication when they will be providing a network that is (in our opinion) fit for purpose. We are happy to post BT's response, and if we are in any way wrong, an apology - this is not a BT hate site after all.

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orainsear

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Re: AAISP
« Reply #5 on: September 11, 2009, 07:37:01 PM »

Hmmm... BT bean counters  :-\
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waltergmw

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Re: AAISP
« Reply #6 on: September 12, 2009, 02:36:30 PM »

Gentlefolk,

There's more interesting insights into the trials and tribulations of an ISP on their site this morning.
And we think we have significant problems just dealing with one connection at a time !

http://aaisp.blogspot.com/

I am very impressed with the culture deomostrated and only wish some others would be as forthcoming.
If you have some inkling of the problem it's so much easier to be understanding and patient.
It also encourages you to report on any anomalies you observe.

Kind regards,
Walter
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Azzaka

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Re: AAISP
« Reply #7 on: September 14, 2009, 02:32:06 PM »

Zen have been aware of the issues pertainig to WBC and WMBC which is why all of our customers are bing migrated to DSL services before being regarded to 2+ on the enabled exchanges.

We have been working with BT as whole for the past 4months and have a dedicated team setup to deal with the specific issues relating to hardware incompatibilty. As it stands some issues have been resolved and some are still ongoing. The move to use Be's lines does not fix the problem; it only serves to create a brand new issue with regards to the supply and demand. The more lines they have, the busier they will get. I hope this does not cause a problem. (see BT Group)

I do have to admit, the openess they display is good, as it does show the customer what is happening and keeps them infomred and as Walter suggests, helps the customer show patients.

NB: please understand these are based on my opions and not thise of Zen.
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