New Adventures in Software

Well, after 2 and a half weeks, I’ve finally got a proper Internet connection again. The Pipex nightmare that I described previously carried on for nearly another week. Pipex’s assurances that my phone line had been released, allowing me to use another ADSL provider were, it seems, entirely fictional. This became clear 2 days after signing up with the new ISP. One final call to Pipex, this time to the more helpful people at the “Customer Retention” office, severed my association with them.

I had to wait 3 and half days after this to receive the vital MAC number that would allow the new ISP to take control of the phone line. This delay and the subsequent 7 days to connect with the new ISP were both due to the major bottle neck in the entire UK ADSL network, BT Wholesale. All the while that BT maintains its laggard monopoly on the infrastructure, the barriers to changing providers are too high for most people to bother. This provides little incentive for ADSL providers to compete on customer service since customer retention is all but guaranteed unless they really mess up.

Ofcom, the toothless regulator, recommends not to bother complaining if the switch-over takes less than 20 days. In the 21st century, when broadband Internet is a basic utility and is used by people to work from home, to buy their weekly groceries, and to communicate with friends and family, is such a delay really the best that we can do? I’m not sure that it would be considered acceptable in a less apathetic country.