BT Openreach rip-off

by Ken at 10:24 on 13 Aug 2010

I live in a rural village and get 1.5Mbps download speed, which is fair enough given where I stay. However I pay the same monthly charge as someone right next to the exchange who gets 8Mbps.

My ISP says that they are charged the same price by BT Openreach regardless of the customer's location. I think this is a rip-off! Why should I pay the same for less that a sixth of the service?

How do we get OFCOM to sort this out with Openreach?

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by anon at 21:01 on 23 Aug 2010

Distance from the exchange is not always the key factor, your own wiring could be causing speed issues, the ISP's always like to pass the blame on to Openreach. I suggest that any internal extension should be removed and replaced by cordless handsets and if you have wireless connectivity use the router in the main socket.
Also on a comedy scale move closer to the exchange :D

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by Phil J at 10:35 on 27 Apr 2011

Just came across this question after a google search and I'm a little confused by anons answer.
It's a cop-out to say move closer or it's down to his wiring. All of those things may well be true but it doesn't answer the question, why should we, that live in rural areas and get lower service, pay the same or usually more than those that live in a town or large village that has an LLU exchange. It's annoying to say the least. You can talk about ecomonys of scale. The fact that providers will not put equipment into an exchange with only a 1000 lines but this is also wrong. Many LLU have followed one another to exchanges with say 3000 or 4000 lines so much so that those exchanges have sometimes as many as 4 different LLU companies. It seems to be just willy waving by these companies.

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by Devils Advocate at 19:51 on 28 Apr 2012

Because it costs alot more to provide service to rural areas, more cable to lay, more cable to maintain. A single ADSL port at the exchange costs the same to provide & rent to a service provider regardless of who its connected to (near or far). If people in rural areas had to pay the true cost of provision many of them would simply choose to move.

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