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Yes. This works really well in the UK. OpenReach, the bit of BT that operates the infrastructure, is part of a private company, but operates like part of the c
by davidgerard 12y ago
Yes. This works really well in the UK.
OpenReach, the bit of BT that operates the infrastructure, is part of a private company, but operates like part of the civil service. They are completely impartial. It is so illegal for OpenReach to offer BT anything they don't offer anyone else, that both BT Broadband and OpenReach staff cringe at the very concept.
tl;dr public wires that many ISPs can supply service over.
- bainsfather 12y agoI've read that twice, and I'm still not sure if you are being sarcastic. For me, those 'public wires' are old and slow - all 3 places I have lived recently. The government have gifted lots of money to BT to roll out fiber, and BT have taken the cash and sat on their hands. It is an awful situation - allowing BT to sabotage our nation's competitiveness whilst stealing taxpayer money [0]. So having competition on the common infrastructure is indeed good, but the overall system definitely does not work "really well". [0] A House of Commons Select Committee slammed the whole setup - e.g. here: http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/public-accounts-committee/news/rural-broadband-report/ http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/...
- aembleton 12y agoBy the use of italics, I think he was being sarcastic.
- davidgerard 12y agoI was not being in the least sarcastic. It works better than the US does, however.
- hackerboos 12y agoIt's different to what's being suggested. BT is private company and runs most of the infrastructure. That's not what is being proposed here.
- davidgerard 12y agoAs I note, OpenReach is, despite a couple of name changes and a privatisation, functionally the old GPO. Except a connection now takes three weeks instead of six months.
- xamuel 12y agoInternet in the UK has downsides too (I learned when I moved here). BT lets all these other ISPs use its infrastructure, but the actual installation is still BT, and they've no incentive to do it in a timely manner. It can take weeks or months after requesting service before you get connected. In my case it took three weeks after signing up with an ISP, despite living a stone's throw from London. Especially bad for foreigners because in order to sign up, you first need a UK bank account, and to get that you need things like electric bills to prove your address (the apartment lease paperwork isn't enough, at least at Barclays). If you're moving here, be prepared for over a month without broadband.
- phireal 12y agoNote that getting pay as you go mobile broadband requires no such documentation, so in a pinch, you can use that in the interim.
- Marazan 12y agoOpenReach legally cannot prioritise BT over other providers.
- davidgerard 12y agoAnd, more to the point, both OpenReach and BT's broadband retail take this very seriously.