Another BT "unmissable" offer ?!?!?!?

[TarAntXon]

I got a letter from the government the other day.
I opened up and read it, and said they were suckas...

Sorry, I got all Chuck D/Tricky all of a sudden...

I meant I got a letter from those lovely guys at BT,
offering a nice surprise...

"WARNING!!! CABLE COMPANIES CHARGING TOO MUCH IN YOUR AREA!"

this was emblazoned in large font all over a yellow dayglo envelope and inside...

"Get a nice surprise from BT instead. Free UK Evening & Weekend calls. Up to 8Mb broadband..."

it went on, promising a service twice as good as my current broadband speed for a paltry £8.95 a month for the first 6 months, then £19.70 a month for the next year out of an 18 month contract.

Now, I must say I am quite happy without a landline as I normally use Skype and use a mobile for calls on the go. Having already had every problem with BT in the past 20 years or so, I have sworn never to go back to those greedy and incompetent bullies that in the past have even fabricated bills when I was out of the country and have given me nothing but headaches and left me waiting for hours at call centers trying to get a service they still seem incapable of providing.

But why do they bother me now? I am quite satisfied with Virgin Media's service inherited from Telewest, which, at 4Mb it is adequate for my use but seems outrageously expensive for £25 pcm. But why promise 8Mb for less? I phoned to check as I couldn't believe they would keep the promise of a service twice as the bandwidth and 23 min 45 seconds later they confirmed that they would guarantee such a speed if only I would disclose my cable account number. They would do the rest. Yeah right, I imagine they would also give me a chequebook of vouchers from Dabs or Asda for all I care, to use only for sticky labels and plastic cases for CDs no doubt.

Of course on the back of the letter there is further baffling disclaimer info, printed so faintly and small that I am wondering if I need prescription glasses.
Anyway it adds up to challenge Virgin's plan M [which I believe includes digital TV - which I do not want] and undoubtedly will get a few accounts rolling back to Buzby's lines and a few disgruntled customers clogging up the call centres to India, Wyoming or wherever they can find cheap enough labour to avoid answering conclusively the customer queries.

A decade or so ago, when the government admitted the consumer was going to be king - as was being given choice to choose between providers and essential services like electricity, gas, phones and trains, I remember thinking that we were all going to suffer the consequences of these companies undercutting each other's prices at the expense of quality...where are we now? My water rates are 4 times what I pay in electricity, that's what, and as far as quality you know what I did with my TV set.

Anybody else got promised the moon and got left unstuck with no service for a while? Or has anybody here got the good deal out of this quagmire?

[RXP]

I'd say the Telco market is an example of where privatization has brought good benefits for the consumer. Intense competition, via LLU has brought faster speeds and more choice. There is some unreliability and the market still needs a muscular regulatory authority but nonetheless BT's 21cn is an example of what competition drives businesses to do. I mean sure Sweden has 100mbit lines, but I'm not sure of the situation over there. How much public investment did it take? Is it worth tax pounds going into 100mbit lines when we already have fast enough broadband? It is worth public funds to get the first leap to broadband, but after that it's diminishing returns. We're all told about Sweden too, but Belgium has had a publically funded broadband network. It is indeed fast for years (20mbit currently) but they have 30gb download caps and charge a stupid amount to go over.

I agree on the other public utilities though, privatisation is based on free market economics which are closer to religion than a workable theory. And marketing is everything that is wrong with private companies, it's mostly full of lies and causes poor choices.