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Tony's Saga

Tony has forwarded his lengthy BT email trail to me. 

Read from the bottom of the page, and scroll up.


Ben/Alison,

I must say that I am very disappointed with your Broadband communications room's responses. To say their findings are vague would be an understatement. It is strange to me that a service that is fast becoming a requirement is treated in a fashion which to me the your customer appears offhand. The facts made available to me are very few when I discuss issues with your representatives. They appear to have little in the way of technical information (or the information on the actual services available as you can see from the attached trail) and this even makes me suspicious if any further testing was carried out.

I would expect with a failure condition which appears to affect whole streets in an enabled area, there would be more that could be done. My location should I feel, quite clearly be within your 5.5 and 6km ranges but to be told that my individual location is out of spec really ignores the issue as a whole.

BT is in a privileged position in that I have very limited alternatives for increased Internet services with this I feel that there comes responsibility. If there is anything further that can be done or at least some facts and evidence that can be presented I would be most appreciative.

I have CC'd my local broadband campaign and their BT contacts for continuity as this is where I received your contact details.

I eagerly await your response.

Best Regards

Tony


-----Original Message-----
From: broadbandquestions@bt.com [mailto:broadbandquestions@bt.com]
Sent: 30 September 2003 12:34
To: Tony
Subject: RE: ADSL Issues.


Tony

I appreciate your frustration with the results of our checks

Please be assured that we carried out all relevant checks on your lines without success.

However as requested please see below details for BT Openworld Sales who will be able to discuss alternative methods of receiving broadband

BTopenworld Satellite sales desk 0800 671155

If I can be of further assistance in the future please do not hesitate to contact me

Regards

Abby


-----Original Message-----
From: Tony
Sent: 30 September 2003 12:17
To: broadband_questions; Hanson,A,Abby,NUP2 R
Cc: Ritchie,AJ,Alison,CGEP R
Subject: RE: ADSL Issues.


Abby,

I understand the economics of not supplying to properties that require intervention but as a monopoly supplier of access surly a survey of the location for a simple fix in the locale which could in itself allow many other properties the benefit of what BT itself advertises as a modern requirement would be a worthwhile exercise?

I would imagine that BT understands that trading on consumers necessity to purchase your product is a dangerous practice and causes resentment within your customer base especially as the majority of people are offered no viable alternative. The findings of your latest survey do differ from the survey that was undertaken earlier this year which does leave me a little annoyed.

My next door neighbour was able to install ADSL under the old 55dB requirement but my address less than 10 meters away built at the same time is unable too with an extension of 5Db! My house is not rural but located in the town centre of a 30 year old city the house itself being newer still. The exchange is located within walking distance of the property.

If nothing further can really be done to take this order forward and your sales force would like to call me to talk about viable alternatives as mentioned in you mail I would be pleased to discuss this with them.

Regards

Tony


-----Original Message-----
From: broadbandquestions@bt.com [mailto:broadbandquestions@bt.com]
Sent: 30 September 2003 11:33
To: Tony
Subject: RE: ADSL Issues.


Tony

I have arranged for a precision test on your line but unfortunately the findings have failed Broadband acceptability.

Therefore please accept our apologies at this time that we are unable to supply you with a quality broadband service.

As previously discussed there are alternative technologies, including satellite and wireless solutions, which might in time deliver cost effective
broadband service to areas unlikely to be viable for the main ADSL broadband rollout

Meanwhile should you wish to discuss the above in greater detail, please feel free to contact me at anytime

Kind regards

Abby


-----Original Message-----
From: Tony
Sent: 29 September 2003 15:53
To: broadband_questions; Hanson,A,Abby,NUP2 R
Cc: Ritchie,AJ,Alison,CGEP R; Knee,PMS,Peggy,CPZP KNEEPM2 R
Subject: RE: ADSL Issues.


Abby,

It is my understanding that the pilot has finished and that you have moved the new 6km line length into production. This I believed happened on the 24th of September and the broadband checker at bt.com was updated accordingly. I checked with your home highway migration team that this was the case and this was also confirmed at the time of order.

The message that was left by your engineer was not rejecting my request on the grounds of the Home Highway installation but rather the breach of your required line noise. A test was carried out on the line by your wholesale department at my request earlier in the year whilst ordering some client required circuits, this showed a sub 60dB reading hence my re-application on the twenty fourth of this month.

In this actuality I don't think that your response is dealing with my query and I would ask you to take another look. I await your modified response.

Many Thanks

Tony


-----Original Message-----
From: broadbandquestions@bt.com [mailto:broadbandquestions@bt.com]
Sent: 29 September 2003 15:38
To: Tony
Subject: FW: ADSL Issues.


Tony

Thank you for your email regarding Broadband

As you may already be aware, ADSL will not work if the line length from the exchange is too long because the greater the length of the cable the weaker the signal at the end of the line.

We have recently been running an internal pilot to investigate extending the reach of broadband services from 55db to 60db, roughly 5.5kms to 6kms. Unfortunately the pilot is not open to ISDN/Home Highway customers.

We have not done this to penalise these customers but because migrating lines with these products on them is a fairly complex process and we want to keep the size of the pilot and the type of line as simple as we can to enable us to fully launch as soon as possible.

Although perhaps not the answer that you were looking for, I trust this is a satisfactory answer to your enquiry.

Kind regards

Abby Hanson

Broadband Communications Room


-----Original Message-----
From: Knee,PMS,Peggy,CPZP KNEEPM2 R
Sent: 29 September 2003 14:45
To: broadband_questions
Subject: FW: ADSL Issues.

Would you please see what we can do here to help.

Thanks.

Peggy


-----Original Message-----
From: Knee,PMS,Peggy,CPZP KNEEPM2 R On Behalf Of Ritchie,AJ,Alison,CGEPR
Sent: 29 September 2003 14:43
To: Tony
Cc: Ritchie,AJ,Alison,CGEP R; Knee,PMS,Peggy,CPZP KNEEPM2 R
Subject: FW: ADSL Issues.

Tony

Sorry Alison can't respond to you personally as she is away from her desk at the moment. I can confirm that I have forwarded your email to our team to see how we can help and we will be back to you shortly.

Kind regards.

Regards

Peggy Knee
SPA to Alison Ritchie
Chief Broadband Officer


-----Original Message-----
From: Verwaayen,B,Ben,CGEB VERWAAB R
Sent: 29 September 2003 14:34
To: Tony; Ritchie,AJ,Alison,CGEP R
Subject: Re: ADSL Issues.


Tony

Of course
I will ask our expert team to have a look ASAP
Alison: please take action

Thanks

Ben
--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld


-----Original Message-----
From: Tony
To: Verwaayen,B,Ben,CGEB VERWAAB R < >
Sent: Mon Sep 29 14:28:35 2003
Subject: ADSL Issues.

Dear Mr Verwaayen,

I recently re-placed my order for ADSL with the change of noise limits on lines. A message has been left at my house to say that my line still does not meet the necessary requirements for an ADSL install. I do find this hard to believe as through work contacts BT Ignite carried out an ad-hoc survey and reported both mine and my neighbours lines as above 55 but under 60db which I believe would put the lines within the required limits. I am told by your call centres that there is no recourse in the event of failures but exasperation is beginning to creep in.

I currently have home highway and work from home as files get bigger and apps require more bandwidth I'm sure you can appreciate this becomes less and less of a viable option. Satellite seems like a poor relation at added cost and is something I would rather avoid.

If there is a way this application can be re-checked and the line can be confirmed that the noise on the line has increased to above the point it was earlier this year and if so why? I would be most interested.

The order details are as follows: Order Number *****SM on Phone number
01908 ******

Many thanks
Tony


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