BT are wankers - discuss

[Stazbumpa]

I just got an Email from my ISP (World Online) notifying me of changes to their pricing system. In my particular case, I subscribe to their Freedom 24 package (£14.99/month) for unmetered net access 24/7.
As of Oct 11th 2000 this will become 100 hours of unmetered net access, anything else being charged at 1p per min.
This is all because BT won't settle the FRIACO debate with other ISP's and Oftel; enabling ISP's to buy net access as a lump and pay a fixed price for it instead of being charged per min by BT; and have managed to drag the proccedings out long enough to force ISP's like WO to make the above price changes.
The problem as i see it is two-fold; firstly BT are complete shit heads for hanging on to the way things used to be when state run and refusing to allow anybody else who may give the customer a fair deal into the arena.
Secondly; Oftel are spineless as BT are obviously in a monopoly position (they supply and charge every ISP in the country, yet the cost to BT itself is far less) and have not done anything about it.
BT have screwed any ideas about umetered access from anyone bar them, and I dread to think what the situation will be when ADSL is running proper.

What do you lot think, or was this post a waste of time?

 

[Embattle]

Well I could write shit loads here over what you've just said, for and against your post, but I can't be arsed since its clear you've already made up you mind about BT

 

[Stazbumpa]

ok, post a reply against my opinion.

 

[old.TUG]

Yes it certainly is a cunt that WO have now raised there prices... 100hrs is NOT 24hrs a day 7 days a week like the freedom24 name makes out and in reality, you get 3 hrs a day for 15 quid a month AS WELL as having to pay 10 quid line rental which is as gay as Exor, so I spose I'll have to find a decent 24/7 ISP again now for a good price.

They did say something aboout broadband soon tho in that email tho.

 

[Ono]

WorldOnline = Localtel = Screaming.net = TWATS

BT = Money grabbing monopoly = slow as shit on ADSL = TWATS

Hence WO + BT = 2 TWATS

 

[old.ED209]

yea im on WOL,and 3hrs a day is pretty pointless.i joined screaming net as i didnt want to have 2 sit and watch the clock ticking down.seems im gonna have 2 join BT.
i ping at around 180-230 on BW servers using WOL,whats the average ping for ppl using BT?
also can you use ISDN with BT freecall thingy?
im quitting WOL/localtel shite now anyways, 3 hours is 6 maps a day of cs,but the chances of you having a solid connection for 3 hours is f`in BS

 

[Stazbumpa]

Yeah, looks like my opinions, well rounded and from the heart as they are will have to take a back seat.
I will probably go back onto BT now as well. I think they do a £20 / month 24/7 package which i think includes ISDN to. Not sure though, i checked their website the other day and promptly forgot everything it said, so i may be wrong.
Question: Is there a minimum period with which you have to stay with WO or can you just bugger off?

Oh, 1 more thing, the BT 24/7 package works with other ISP's apart from BT although you may have to pay a subscription fee to them. The good news is that Demon joins that group of ISP's in October.

Or is that good news?

Love and hugs (!?)

Staz

 

[old.TUG]

Yeah if u find out bout if you have to stay with WOL for a year or not, lemme know... wouldn't mind ISDN I dont fink as long as it's cheap hence I'd move to BT *again* if needs be

 

[old.ED209]

i think you have to stay for a year,im not sure i think i can switch back to BT in DEC,or you just pay a fee to quit.

 

[old.jobbie]

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/

or

http://www.net4nowt.com/

Just take a look at the 2 urls above, loads of free isps and reviews

not bad sites

 

[Stazbumpa]

thanx for the links; very useful (no sarcasm either).

oh well, back to square one really innit.

Staz

 

[old.TUG]

This new ISP called IGCLICK seems ok, getting overall good responses from users @ both of those webbies

 

[old.ignus]

I think BT are really good (sarcasm) and should run everything. Yeah right, they're about as good as Insight eh Staz?

KJ and S

 

[Stazbumpa]

Insight are the most fantastic company in the world, i'll have you know Mr Ignus.

No, really.

 

[old.Paradroid]

BT are just a normal company just making money.
Anyone got BT shares?
Anyones parents got BT shares?
These are the people who benefit from the shitty prices.
It's ALL for them...ALL of it....the run-around with the media, government, Oftel...it's all so BT's shares make money and they'll keep charging as much as they can for as long as they can.
Oftel
http://www.oftel.gov.uk/

 

[Embattle]

Originally posted by Paradroid
Anyones parents got BT shares?

Any one got parents or friends who work for BT?

Maybe we should see them all lose there jobs etc?

 

[Stazbumpa]

Somehow I don't think that BT cutting its prices will result in job losses. They make a few million every hour, and if they did sack staff after "being asked" to lower prices, then that adds to their tally of shittiness.

Anyway, the local loop gets freed up next year, so prices will hopefully go through the floor

 

[kameleon]

BT are really good, which other telephone company would give you adsl on a contention ratio of 20:1 with no guaranteed bandwidth? (Incidentally if everyone on the ratio is downloading at the same time you get worse performance than a 56k modem) and then charge you 40 quid a month for it, and have to be forced by court to let the isps into their exchanges to fix people up with it? For purely gaming purposes you are better off getting isdn and using an unmetered access ISP. (www.connect25.com offers good value)
BT really piss me off because i'm on a split line which means I can only get connection speeds of 28,800 bps (I wish NTL would get their act together) My uncle is a chief field engineer for BT and even he cant get me a decent connection! BAH!

 

[Embattle]

Originally posted by stazbumpa
Somehow I don't think that BT cutting its prices will result in job losses

You think so, then you don't know business.

I look forward to cheaper calls and an even worse service.

 

[Guest]

I know a girl who works for bt, nothing to do with the topic really, but there ya go, and yes, she does

 

[Stazbumpa]

Ok, so maybe I put it across incorrectly.

What I meant was that BT cutting prices "shouldn't" result in job losses, as the amount of money they make ought to be more than enough to absorb the price cuts, not shed staff and still keep the shareholders happy.

But, of course, it won't work like that. As you say, its business.

The bottom line, though, is that people do not want to continue paying as much as they are and Kamilion is quite right in what he says about BT's Openworld service.
Things will reach critical mass soon enough.

From what I can gather, plenty of other companies have the technology and the ability to provide a fast, reliable and relatively cheap connection to the Net.

BT won't let them though.

 

[old.Jools]

BT

BT?
I've dealt with their residential support, their business support, their technical side and their educational team. My considered opinion is that BT suck on every single level. The only long term planning they seem to do is to consider how much more shit they can feed to their clients, how much moer money they can stiff them for, and exactly how shit a sefvice can they provide while maintaining a strangle hold monopoly on the UK communications system.

My advice is - Watch the BT share prices. They are going DOWN and staying that way If you work for BT - u should either get another job or slit your own throat and do the world a favour.

Damn that was a good rant I feel SOOO much better

 

[Embattle]

Originally posted by stazbumpa
From what I can gather, plenty of other companies have the technology and the ability to provide a fast, reliable and relatively cheap connection to the Net.

Any company can since they have to provide for every section of the country.

 

[Ono]

Originally posted by [KiL]Kamelion
BT are really good, which other telephone company would give you adsl on a contention ratio of 20:1

Errr....surely you mean 80:1??!

I would be darn happy with 20:1

Come to think of it I would be happy if they actually came and installed the Fcking thing!

 

[old.Darkhorse]

I cant believe that most of you are complaining about BT, yet are saying that you'll probably go back to them? The way to get action is to boycott BT and go for another company... Remember the fuel crisis a few weeks ago... they will take note... Why do you think they wanted all the other franchised companies ie World Online to stop giving free time on the net? its obvious - because they were losing out bigtime... thats the reason why you cant go into any town centre without seeing the posters saying 'Thousand are Returning to Us!'.

Having enjoyed WorldOnline for about the past 18 months I cant see how people can knock what was a brilliant service. Granted there were a few teething problems like disconnection and engaged tones when it first started up.
But personally I have not encountered any problems since the service went free. To give you an example, post World Online I was spending upto £270 per quarter on my internet phonebill. After the £14.99 a month 24/7 freetime with WO I was getting a bill of just £18 per month!!! and I can tell you I would be on for around 19,000 minutes per month.

Its time to make a stand and vote with your money. Im going to stick with World Online unless I can find another ISP that can offer a similar offer that we enjoyed a few weeks ago.Perhaps if BT didnt give Mr Spielberg so much money for the hire of MR ET, they could afford to lower their prices too... Remember before any of the other companies emerged that BT were making BILLIONS of pounds of profit per year. They are also getting money from these franchised companies to rent the BT lines. Lets also remember how long it took stupid BT to convert us over to our FREE ISP providers.

Thats my 2 pennies worth...Ta
Dave

 

[old.MeddlE]

BT Openworld stand, LIVE2000.

BT Guy: Would you like any information on BT Openworld Sir?

My mate: Yes. When are you installing mine, it's been on order for months?

BT Guy mumbles something, looks around for excuse to leave, can't find one, so just turns back on us and walks to other side of stand.

Now that's what I call service.

 

[old.EVIL naz]

Ive been with freeserve unlimited for about 3 months, at the start there was no problems. I got connected first time and the speed was ok, not great but ok. I still used a UKCCL dialup 4 clan games (i think i will switch 2 BW as the UKCCL 1 has been givig me and my m8t's problems with getting connected of late) because of the better pings, but it was still good enough 4 surfing and playing with np's.

Since i started though it has gotten worse and worse, it can take up 2 half an hour 2 get connected and drops me more often. + i think the pings have gotten worse 2 boot!

Any 1 else had the same problem?

 

[Embattle]

You will have these problems since they are still taking members.

 

[old.EVIL naz]

WELL DAMN THEM ALL TWO HELL!!!

;

 

[old.Johnny Jackal]

I'm on NTL which really is only handy if you're on cable tv already, but as it is I'm paying only about £4 a month for free access. The downside is the 2 hour cut off. Real bugger for long playing games (such as an epic RTS battle or rpg) and bad for big downloads (however in another posting people have told me I can get round the download problem - we shall see).

Also I'm using freeserve at work (like now) and it now cuts off every few minutes. In fact I'll have to dial up again to make the posting of this reply even though I've just started it. This auto-cut off nonsense has only started in the last few days and I assume it's because of the huge increase of people getting online this year. We must be hitting the limits of BT's wiring.

OH OH, why are we so behind Europe and the States?

(I think the answer might be a two letter word)