After complaining to Telewest about the new pricing structure I got this reply.
Thank you for your e-mail dated 20 December 2006.
I apologise for any inconvenience and confusion caused. Telewest Broadband aims for the highest standards of customer satisfaction and is disappointed when these are not met.
Our own packages and prices are under constant review to ensure we remain competitive. There are also a number of points to consider in any comparison of Telewest Broadband services, to those of our competitors.
It is important to consider ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) providers limitations due to their reliance upon traditional copper cable technology. Providers with the exemption of Blueyonder can only offer speeds of 'upto' 2MB etc, as signals travelling through copper cables degrade over distance, so your actual download speed is decreased as distance from the local exchange is increased. In addition this also results in an ADSL speed being more severely affected by net traffic at busy times, which will also slow the speed of your connection. Where as I do agree the offer along with other promotions from other providers do seem to provide a cheaper solution, their technology limitations will invariable result in an inferior service.
As Blueyonder operates on a superior Fibre Optic network we have the ability to be able to guarantee our customers their connection speeds and due to the nature of Fibre Optic technology we are virtually unaffected by net traffic within our own network.
Looking to the future our technology will enable us to increase our bandwidth speeds virtually without limit and are currently testing new Broadband connection speeds far in excess of the current market. Whereas our ADSL competitors are now reaching the end of copper cable based speed.
It is because of our investment in technologically advanced networks and infrastructure that our prices may be slightly higher than those of other providers. However, our customers reap the benefits of this investment in the quality of service we can provide.
Does this smack of MONOPOLY and is it time for other broadband suppliers to be allowed to use the cable networks in the same way they use the old BT system. Any thoughts.
