Ofcom smacks Sky for breaching broadband switching rules Communications regulator Ofcom has ruled that there are "reasonable grounds" to suspect Sky breached rules to allow consumers to easily switch broadband and landline providers, which could lead to a multi-million pound fine. It follows a year-long investigation by the regulator as to whether Sky contravened the rules on …
They only have to worry a bit about competition from Virgin media.
Don't forget that VM are lining up alongside BT to campaign against the split-out of Openreach, so they are more allies than competitors. And the reason for that is that VM's cable network passes 30% of UK homes, and if Openreach are unbundled, VM reason that there's a real risk of their network having to offer local loop unbundling.
Having seen my Virginmedia bill almost double over the past eighteen months, I'm deeply unimpressed but wholly unsurprised with the consequences of the Cable Cowboy's takeover. 150 Mbps sounds good, but doesn't feel any different from 50 Mbps, and when I've spoken to them VM staff are clearly trained not to compete with Openreach based offerings.
"And the reason for that is that VM's cable network passes 30% of UK homes, and if Openreach are unbundled, VM reason that there's a real risk of their network having to offer local loop unbundling."
I think the problem for Virgin is that if OR were split and given some kind of USO with a regulated pricing model, Virgin go bust; as do fibrecity, gigaclear and all the independent operators.
Virgin can exist because they operate in high-density areas at the lower end of the network cost spectrum. OR's coverage is wider and so has a higher average cost and the city folk subsidise the country folk. If OR's wholesale price drops below the network cost of the other guys through regulation, the other guys are finished as network operators.
"if Openreach are unbundled, VM reason that there's a real risk of their network having to offer local loop unbundling."
VM haven't been sucking on the public funding tit to have an obligation to unbundle foisted on them.
More to the point, an unbundled OR will see VM as a customer and start selling them cheaper access to the other 70% of the country. It's much cheaper to shove a duct down existing groundworks than to have to dig your own.
An unbundled OR _can't_ compete for endusers - wholsale-only and "no entity is allowed to have a controlling interest" is the key - see NZ and "chorus" for what's happened in the last 5 years.
An unbundled OR _can't_ compete for endusers.
Yes it can.
Openreach can still cherry pick its customers, roll out "up to" Ultrafast Technology to a select few, that is biased in favour of BT Group's Copper Carcass/those with shorter cable lengths <250m (already receiving near 80Mbps), with absolutely no plans (OK, maybe a meagre 2%) for Ultrafast for anyone with lines greater than 500m. Period.
It's certainly not rollout irrespective of where the customer is.
"I thought the biggest complaint about Sky was that they made it very difficult to actually talk/complain to them..."
So people keep telling me. However I've been with them for a number of years for TV, and until very recently phone and broadband. In all that time their customer service has been nothing short of excellent, not that I've had too much to complain to them about because I have had virtually no problems with any of their services.
I can't help thinking that because people don't like the Murdoch empire, they just make any old shit up to make them look bad.
The line in the article about TalkTalk and the comment about Sky making it difficult to talk to them/complain points to a bigger issue. Maybe the people I've talked to in the USA and parts of Europe have just been lucky. But it does seem as if UK companies are very reluctant to hear about, let alone sort out, problems.
Typically an attempt to complain starts with not being able to find a phone number. Instead there will be a web page with "Contact us" on it. Which will not lead to contact details, or if you are lucky will (only) have a post address. More often than not this page will lead to a list of FAQs - all of which will offer anodyne solutions to blindingly obvious issues. Underneath these there might be a link which says "Did this answer your question?"
If you hit the "no" button it will take you back to the "Contact us" page.
Should you then choose to write a letter of complaint you might get a sane response. But you might also get a standard boiler plate letter that answers an entirely different question. Or no answer at all.
But it does seem as if UK companies are very reluctant to hear about, let alone sort out, problems.
Recently had to deal with EE PAYG. You can't talk to a real person at EE unless you have 'credit' because such calls are chargeable, but chargeable outside of a bundle. So having grabbed a new SIM spent the topup on a month's free call and data bundle, I find myself unable to talk to any one at EE customer services unless I purchase another topup and leave it in the account ie. not convert it to a bundle...
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