Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuart
I don't know if that is what OFCOM wants. I get the impression that they want broadband internet provision to operate along the same lines as the electricity and gas industries. Essentially that billing and provision are separate and while you are free to change "providers", the provider you change is merely the company that bills you, and the service always comes from the same company,
This is how the electricity industry operates. You can change from (say) Npower to (say) British Gas and BG will take over things like maintenance of your local meter, meter readings, billing etc. You may even pay less, but your electricity will ALWAYS come from the same local electricity company.
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The electricity market is a hell of a lot more complicated than that.
Your old-fashioned regional electricity board now merely provides the distribution network. National Grid provides the transmission network, as it previously did. Various private companies operate power stations, and all of your electricity comes from these, not from the same old local company.
Broadly speaking, the retailer you buy from has to agree contracts for supply into the grid from the various generating companies. It pays the generators for the proportion of their output that relates to the contract between them, and it pays for distribution services over the local network to your house. They then bill you the total plus their own costs and their profit margin. Different regional distributors face different challenges in operating their networks, and charge different amounts, which is why you may find, with smaller retailers, there is a difference in what they charge customers depending on where in the UK they are.