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On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 12:49:31PM +0000, Neil Winchurst wrote: > I have said this before, but here goes. I shall never understand the > 'thinking'? behind having the telephone system for a Western European > country run by a private company with shareholders. Crazy. > > BT are the main reason, IMHO, that we are so far behind many other > European countries with our broadband speeds. > There is nothing wrong with having a private company run a major utility: the easy solution is to demand that that the said private company should be mandated to spend a minimum amount on upgrading / improving the system. Whether that applies to all companies or only those with a market share of more than say 5%, pass. Whether that should apply to only telephone companies or ISPs, pass. Whether companies should license the service from the Government (eg the 3G payments: see link) or instead be mandated to improve infrastructure instead, pass. Whether it is more important to lower the cost of the service or improve its quality, pass. Should individuals in cities cross subsidise those of us in the country, of course ;) If firms are ineffective at doing this then they should go bust and let others take over. With BT there are problems 1. Only recently has the regulator said there is now sufficient competition and hence it can offer cheaper packages. 2. BT have a £9bn pension deficit: if they go bust there is going to be a whole lot of misery. I have no doubt that while some deserve to lose some of their pension there are many who don't. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/feb/11/bt-pension-deal-regulator-concerns http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/7743 http://www.homephonechoices.co.uk/bt-to-offer-cheaper-phone-deals-after-ofcom-deregulation-16092009.html -- Henry Photocopies or faxes of my signature are not binding. This email has been signed with an electronic signature in accordance with subsection 7(3) of the Electronic Communications Act 2000. Digital Key Signature: GPG RSA 0xFB447AA1 Wed Feb 24 13:33:46 GMT 2010
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