Drifting downstream without a paddle

Like millions of other unfortunates I get my internet service from British Telecom.  Almost certainly like most of them I am not overly impressed. My first grouse with BT is just how feeble the service actually is out in the boondocks.

The second beef is that they have reduced my connection speed because I have apparently breached their fair usage policy. The end result is that my broadband connection has been reduced to 1Mbps for a minimum of 30 days.

Curiously it is rarely above 1Mbps despite BT’s ludicrous claims on internet connection speed. So effectively nothing has changed except my opinion of BT has plummeted even further.

As I didn’t think this was possible I thought I better start looking aaround again. You see, if you pay through the nose for a service, it seems fair and reasonable that you should be able to use it. And that BT should be making allowances for how many people with computers actually live at a single address.

So the question is – for families and groups of people sharing is seems a business SDSL provider a serious and sensible option? I am beginning to think that it is.

My other concern with BT is their sheer uselessness as a company. I receive an appalling broadband service for which I am paying top dollar. It certainly isn’t good enough to contemplate streaming television programmes through a whizzy hub – so why do BT persist in calling me to ‘upgrade’ me to a service I cannot receive?

Don’t get me wrong. I am sure that IPTV  the way of the future.  Imagine a world where we never have to miss Ready, Steady Cook ever again.  I just can’t even begin to contemplate using it because the infrastructure is not there to use it.

It’s a bit like air-conditioning on the underground…. A good idea – but the Victorians didn’t think people needed to travel to work and be comfortable.

Now we have BT and the government placing the bar for internet services so low that the UK will soon be back in the dark ages