UK ADSL packages Announced By British Telecom

jac writes: "BT have just released news of BT Openworld -- BT's new broadband portal and high-speed Internet service using ADSL technology. The home-user service is £39.99 a month with speeds up to 512 kpbs, connection is via a BT USB modem (Win 98/2000). I wonder if we'll see a lot of UK effort going into Linux USB modem support in the next few months?" Good to see the Britons getting decent bandwidth.

Comments

Re:Why this is still a bad thing

[ralphclark]

It's the NAT layer preventing us from running our own servers that is the most odious aspect of all this IMHO.

I have just sent the following communications to BT and Oftel:

To BT I wrote:

I am very unimpressed with the severe limitations placed on the ADSL service BT is offering.

I was very much looking forward to hosting my own web server, but it appears that not only is this impossible under the current service offering, I will also be unable to use my own SMTP server or any kind of server at all.

I know from ADSL users in the US that this is not due to any technical limitations imposed by necessity but is simply due to a policy decision by BT to limit the service in this way. It seems more than likely that BT intends to force users to pay for a web hosting service when this is not really necessary for any technical or practical reasons.

I feel that this is yet another clear example of BT leveraging their monopoly over the local loop in an improper way. I will be therefore also be contacting Oftel to request that they either remove this monopoly or force you to stop forcing Network Address Translation on ADSL users and allow us to run our own server software.

And to Oftel I wrote:

BT's new ADSL service has been deliberately designed with unnecessary limitations which damage the value proposition for end users.

The worst of these is that it is not possible for users to run any sort of server software. There is no technical reason why this should be so, but they have inserted a layer of Network Address Translation (NAT) between the users and the internet which prevents servers from being accessible from the outside world.

I have no doubt that BT seeks to force their users to pay for web hosting services etc. in the expectation that they will get some of the business. I am utterly incensed by this; it is yet another clear example of BT cynically abusing its monoply over the local loop. The customers yet again find themselves robbed of any alternative.

Please note that in other countries such as the Netherlands and the US where ADSL has been available for some time, customers are indeed able to run their own servers as a part of the standard service.

I am therefore requesting, in the strongest possible terms, that OFTEL immediately takes one of the following two actions:

i) to force BT to remove the NAT which is hiding the servers in my ADSL connection

ii) to remove BT's monopoly on the local loop forthwith, i.e. not to wait until next year.

As I implied there are other problems with BT's ADSL offering but the NAT restriction is plainly intolerable. BT continues to take advantage of their monopoly by refusing to provide the full service available in overseas telecoms markets which have been fully privatised.

I look forward to an early reply.

I urge all existing and potential ADSL users in the UK to send your own complaints to these bodies. I am sure most of you can write more persuasive letters than I did. Pick an issue: complain about the NAT, complain about the poor support for non-Windows addresses, complain about the restriction to single computer, complain about the contention ratio; whatever genuine complaint you make will help to drive home the message that BT are fucking us in the ass and getting away with it. We are the customers and we are not happy, either with BT's abuse of its monopoly or with OFTEL's old-boy-network, kid-gloves treatment of the same.

Suitable online complaint forms can be found here at BT and here at OFTEL.

Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
Thought exists only as an abstraction

I've been testing this for a year

[hedgehog_uk]

I'm one of about 900 people who have been testing BT's ADSL since last April. BT are a large monopoly, so therefore they make clueless decisions. Initially we paid £30 a month for a 2Mb/s connection. We were given an ADSL modem and ATM->Ethernet router. After ~8 months, BT changed the trial to £50 a month at 512Kb/s. For real-world usage the 75% reduction in bandwidth was not a big deal, but the increase in price was. I still feel that £30-£35 a month would be about right, but £40 isn't as bad as it might have been.

BT seem to be focused on Windows and ignoring the many *nix users on the trial. They have tacitly acknowledged that we exist by providing us with the information needed to connect with Linux.

BT have not yet contacted us trialists to tell us about the official launch. What we have at present is the same as their 'multi-user business service' which they plan to charge £100/month for. If they downgrade us to the USB modems then I probably won't be able to use it with Linux and will be extremely annoyed with them.

I can't wait for the local loop to be unbundled next year so I can switch to a clueful adsl provider!

HH

Yellow tigers crouched in jungles in her dark eyes.

Why this is still a bad thing

[A Masquerade]

• USB only unless you pay much much more, manufacturer of the modems won't talk to anyone else, so a linux port will be hard.
• BT only support windows (currently - might do Mac), and use proprietary authentication schemes - so its not just the modem you must drive but the other end too
• Its a 50:1 contention ratio
• Its firewalled and NATed to the point of uselessness - you ain't going to be able to connect back into a box on this service no nohow
• BT OpenWorld are just a renamed BT Internet. BT Internet are clueless... so clueless they had to rename them, need I say more
• All the other ADSL services within the next year are just going to be this resold - BT still own the local loop and are doing everything they can to keep it that way as long as they can

Basically we are stuck with this crap setup until BT are stripped of local loop monopoly