Local loop sends local hack loopy

ONCE UPON A TIME, Bulldog was an independent ISP, offering high-speed broadband - which a few years ago meant 8Mbit/sec, which seems to be about as fast as an ADSL1 line will go, at least in Britain - and unlimited downloads.

The firm did this by means of local loop unbundling - in other words, they took over your phone line from BT, so that for your single monthly payment, you got line rental, broadband and telephone calls. I switched over after getting typical rough handling from BT, ending with my line being disconnected.

Bulldog were pretty good. Taking over the line took a while. I'd already been cut off and had told BT that I didn't want to be reconnected as I was changing supplier. Despite this, it silently reconnected me, against my stated wishes, which rather confused the issue. It then took a few weeks of tweaking the line speed until I had a steady connection at about 6.5Mb/s, which seems to be the best my line can support. Until it was stable, Bulldog support phoned me every few days to tell me what was going on - even when there was no progress to report.

In May 2004, the good times ended. Cable and Wireless - known in the business as "Clueless and Witless" among less polite names - launched a move into consumer broadband provision by buying Bulldog. C&W billing seemed to be less than entirely competent and due to them failing to set up a direct debit correctly, I got cut off.

Slightly over two years later, in June 2006, C&W announced it was withdrawing back into the wholesale market. A few months later, it sold Bulldog's retail customer base to Pipex. Shortly afterwards, C&W announced that it was taking some customer billing back in-house from Pipex, for no readily-apparent reason. And I got cut off again, as it still hadn't sorted out my direct debit. Later, it phoned me to re-arrange the direct debit and promised me that this would be last time - and credited me with £40 to compensate for the inconvenience.

I didn't get it, because now, C&W has written to me telling me that my account has been closed and I'm being disconnected at the end of July.

Dealing with C&W is an experience I won't miss.

But this threw up another snag. Even in the capital, it seems to be very hard to get ADSL without a BT phone line. I don't have the option of cable - despite being outside the southern border of London by about a hundred metres, there's no cable in my area, nor will there be.

After an afternoon of telephonic fun and enough call-queue muzak to melt my Wernicke's area, it seems that almost all British ADSL suppliers seem to require a BT line. Even the ones who dabble in local-loop unbundling, such as Sky (which bought Easynet), Be, TalkTalk and Tiscali, all regretfully told me that they couldn't connect me up without a BT line. The BT monopoly runs deeper in modern Britain than is generally recognized.

In the end, Bulldog's parent company for some of its subscribers, Pipex, has come to the rescue. It's the only broadband supplier that your humble correspondent could find that is willing, able and even happy to take on a subscriber with a non-BT telephone line. The deal's a tenner a month cheaper than C&W's was, too. If you still see my byline on the Inquirer regularly at the end of July, you'll know it worked.

P. S. See for yourself the sweetness and charm of C&W customer relations:

27th June 2007

Your account reference: bdolXXXXXX
Your phone line: 0208XXXXXXX

NOTICE OF SERVICE DISCONNECTION

Dear Mr Proven,

Following an evaluation of our business strategy we have concluded that we are unable to economically maintain our services within the residential sector. With regret, we are terminating your service in accordance with clause 5.4 of the terms and conditions which states the following:

“Either of us may end a Service or the contract by giving not less than thirty (30) days prior notice (written or verbal) to the other at any time after activation; notice will expire on the last day of the notice period or the last day of the Initial Period, whichever is later. You may end a Service or the contract if we notify you of a materially detrimental change to a Service or these Terms. In this case you may only terminate during the period of thirty (30) days following such notification.”

This notice shall take effect, and your services will cease, thirty days from the day after the date of this email. All services that you have live with Cable & Wireless Access and which will have been originally ordered from Bulldog will be disconnected at this time.

What you should do before your services are disconnected

Firstly, should you wish to retain your current phone number and have uninterrupted phone service when your service is disconnected, we strongly recommend you contact BT on 0800 800 880 and make a request for a “return to donor” to enable your line to be passed back to BT. This applies only if you have one of our broadband+phone services and not a broadband-only service.

Secondly, we recommend you seek an alternative provider. Moving from one broadband provider to another typically requires a MAC key from the previous provider. However this is not the case if your service is a broadband+phone service; MAC keys cannot used in this instance.

Please continue to pay your account as normal. Non-payment of any charges due may result in your services being terminated within the period stated above and the pursuit of the outstanding amount through all means possible - such as a debt collection agency.

Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your custom.

Sincerely,

Customer Operations

Cable & Wireless Access