On Sun, 24 Aug 2003 15:52:07 GMT, Simon Avery wrote:

I thought that this had recently been withdrawn on residential lines
unless it gets something silly? (I could ask my telecomms lawyer,
but she's asleep atm )

They may well have changed the rules again. At one time residential
compenstation was 1 months rental per day of service loss after the
end of the next normal working day that the fault was reported or
something very similar. They then brought in the free divert and
reduced the compensation to minimal or non-existant if you took the
free divert. If the divert was to a mobile I think you got/get around
a fiver to pay for out going calls/voice mail pickup etc.

I already have it, despite being a nadge over 7km according to a
pingtest. I guess this is why it's proving temperamental - six
failures in three years;

That failure rate is about the level my ISDN line is running at, we
are 3.5km from the exchange. Most of the faults are with the bit of
damp string under the ground. Last time they swapped the pairs for the
POTS and ISDN lines, guess which one fails now...

the slightest fault that would be unnoticable on a PSTN line dumps
me completely.

Occasionally a "reset" sent by the 154 (your ISDN is classed as
Business isn't it?) faults operator would sort mine out.

But the major players are pretty much guaranteed a licence. Unless
they do something absurdly silly, Oftel wouldn't appreciate the
abuse they'd receive if several hundred thousand subscribers
suddenly had to search for a new provider.

Existing customer base would be very valuable to the incoming licence
holder. As far as the user is concerned it would be a seamless
transfer, things might change after transfer with tarrifs etc but
users would not be simply dumped.

compare that to having to prepwire, concentrators, wayleaves,
numerous visits to every house so they're in when they said
they would be.

For a new player trying to provide "the last mile" yes. Which is why
no one has done it, they all rent "the last mile" from BT who,
generally speaking, has wire almost everywhere.

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail