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Nope. It was already there when I moved in 12 years ago. And even if I did, that still doesn't involve BT. I don't have a BT phone cable at my house though, s

Nope. It was already there when I moved in 12 years ago. And even if I did, that still doesn't involve BT. I don't have a BT phone cable at my house though, so would need to pay for that to be installed if I wanted to go down that route.

tehwalrus 13y ago
Interesting... I thought the old nationalised BT had cables to every house. I just object to not being allowed to use the hardware already installed with a provider entirely of my own choice, which would be the most efficient way to run infrastructure businesses.
- matthewmacleod 13y ago
  BT was forced to unbundle the local loops years ago, and it's been possible to get broadband and phone services from a diversity of providers using old BT-installed lines for some time.
  - alexkus 13y ago
    Don't BT end up getting some/most of the line rental money anyway; whether directly passed on or via a Wholesale Line Rental?
    - Swannie 13y ago
      The price of which is regulated. It's still considered high by the ISPs that rent it.
- andrewaylett 13y ago
  You can now get a PSTN connection without having a direct relationship with BT, through unbundling. I get my phone line from Zen (no relationship apart from being a happy customer). At the end of the day it's still a BT engineer who comes to fit the thing (assuming the wiring isn't there already), but it's your provider who has the contractual relationship with BT. There's also the cable option, but if you go down that route then you're actually more tied in to a single provider for services than with PSTN/ADSL.
- prof_hobart 13y ago
  They had wires to any house that had paid to have it connected. I was 7 before we had a phone in the house, and they had to wire us up when that happened. My current house had BT at some point (there's a BT access box in a cupboard, but it's not connected to anything), but it was gone before I moved in - I'm guessing either as a result of some roadworks having cut through the wires or possibly a BT upgrade of their infrastructure, but as the people who lived there before me were on what was Diamond Cable at the time, BT clearly didn't bother doing whatever was involved in rewiring the house back in.

tehwalrus 13y ago

Interesting... I thought the old nationalised BT had cables to every house. I just object to not being allowed to use the hardware already installed with a provider entirely of my own choice, which would be the most efficient way to run infrastructure businesses.

matthewmacleod 13y ago
BT was forced to unbundle the local loops years ago, and it's been possible to get broadband and phone services from a diversity of providers using old BT-installed lines for some time.
- alexkus 13y ago
  Don't BT end up getting some/most of the line rental money anyway; whether directly passed on or via a Wholesale Line Rental?
  - Swannie 13y ago
    The price of which is regulated. It's still considered high by the ISPs that rent it.
andrewaylett 13y ago
You can now get a PSTN connection without having a direct relationship with BT, through unbundling. I get my phone line from Zen (no relationship apart from being a happy customer). At the end of the day it's still a BT engineer who comes to fit the thing (assuming the wiring isn't there already), but it's your provider who has the contractual relationship with BT. There's also the cable option, but if you go down that route then you're actually more tied in to a single provider for services than with PSTN/ADSL.
prof_hobart 13y ago
They had wires to any house that had paid to have it connected. I was 7 before we had a phone in the house, and they had to wire us up when that happened. My current house had BT at some point (there's a BT access box in a cupboard, but it's not connected to anything), but it was gone before I moved in - I'm guessing either as a result of some roadworks having cut through the wires or possibly a BT upgrade of their infrastructure, but as the people who lived there before me were on what was Diamond Cable at the time, BT clearly didn't bother doing whatever was involved in rewiring the house back in.