Finally, I'd really like to know where all these 3 million fibre-enabled households are, because we sure as heck aren't one of them and would love to have it, and we're fairly close to an exchange and in the middle of Cambridge, which is one of the most technology-focussed cities in the UK.
Well, it seems BT's services have caps -- lower tiers have a pay cap, and higher ones have a cap (admittedly fairly high -- 300GB) after which service is throttled.
BT abolished the 300GB cap on its unmetered/unlimited tariffs earlier this year
They now only restrict P2P traffic during peak periods
EU wants to play hardball? If they're smart, Microsoft could REALLY play this off to their advantage, making themselves look like a victim and getting the EU to back down.
Generally when a government or large organisation wants something it gets it. The bigger it is, the more likely it is to get its own way.
The EU represents 25 different countries (soon to be 27+) includes several of the biggest economies (including UK, France, Germany and Italy - thats over half the G7) in the world and currently has about 450 million people in it. According to the CIA handbook its economy is worth $13.31 trillion.
Microsoft, as you may have gathered is not the biggest kid in this particular playground - fighting a war with a governmental type organisation of this sort only ends in one loser and it wouldn't be the EU.
If Microsoft stopped selling in the EU - well apart from losing all that business, do you think European owned businesses in America and elsewhere won't also drop MS products?
What about American owned companies in Europe - they would be screwed too.
Than I see all the far eastern companies and governments dumping MS as well - I mean if a company was stupid enough to leave the EU - why should they take the risk that MS will try and do something as stupid in the future with them.
PC companies (Dell etc) would simply switch ASAP to OS to Linux or Apple both in Europe and then offer the same choice globally and MS can wave their monopoly goodbye..
Looking at the mail address ajs318 might be british. I don't know if they have legally mandated coverage, but here in Denmark we have 2 years (with a change in the "burden of evidence" after six months, after that the customer needs to argue that the defect was not caused by treating the item wrongly)
Actually, here in the UK, since last year, we have (virtually) the identical law here - probably based on some EU directive - even though "1 year" is frequently advertised with a little note:
"This does not affect your statuory rights"
I have always found this amusing but there are some many people who don't know their rights that companies get away with it.
Even better though - here in the UK - we have something here called the Sales of Goods Act which predates the above law (its from the 70's) and actually means that goods have to last a "reasonable" amount of time - with "reasonable" defined as up to 6 years!(slightly different period in Scotland) depending on the goods.
i.e. a cheap toaster won't be expected to last 6 years but you are on much safer ground with say a TV or a Washing Machine - especially if its not a bottom of the range one.
And the judges in the UK "Small Claims Court" always always seem to favour the consumer - and its the judges view of whats reasonable that counts!:)
In these cases, purchasers can demand damages (which a court would equate to the cost of a repair or replacement) - not bad hey - free (upto) 6 year guarantees in the UK..
If only more people knew their consumer rights here!
To find your PID, right-click on My Computer and hit properties to bring up the System control panel. The PID will be right under the "registered to" section. It will be, e.g., aaaaa-bbb-ccccccc-ddddd. If bbb is not 640, you or definately out of luck. If it is 640, feel free to give it a shot. Or, you can slways make you a new CD Key that works.:D
My (legit) XP install has a bbb of 012 - seems quite far from your 640 figure
God only knows what foriegn language he'd have to learn to go to Oxford or Cambridge
Yes, its quite a challenge for many US students - it means that they would have to learn English, rather than American!
Could you elaborate on your BT comment please. I work for BT here in the states & would like more info on how we are in the 'home market'
Hmm - where to start:)
BT is the dominant telco in the UK, so is generally seen as providing a very high Quality of Service (compared to cheaper telco's which use VoIP etc - BT as a rule don't) and its customer services are generally seen to be better than the two main cable companies (NTL and Telewest), as well as having a state of the art network (apart from the local loop)
However, BT also has all the baggage that comes with being the former monopoly phone company.
While it has world famous research facilities and is involved in things like settings for ADSL/VDSL etc and testing ADSL2+/VDSL etc- it is relatively slow at rolling them out commerically in the UK.
For example, its ADSL rollout only really started in 2000 (very late!), though it has already covered 85% of households and hopes to cover almost 100% by the end of 2005.
This is partly to do with BT's concern about quality of service - they won't release anything where standards have not been agreed and the equipment tested to death (unlike American/Japanese telco's who are more willing to take risks)
In the same way for ADSL - they only have RADSL in the upstream direction (though it hardly affects anyone). They refuse to "do" RADSL downstream like you have in the States as they don't want complaints about subscribing to an x speed service but only getting y speed etc.
As such, its "considered" (partly wrong as described above) not to react very quickly, and "reluctant" to provide new technology
Also, due to its regulation, it has to allow competitors to use its network and sell "wholesale" versions of almost everything its offers for less than it charges the public for them itself - hence sometimes seen as "expensive" as well - though the cable companies are often more expensive here in the UK for voice calls suprisingly.
Thus its reputation for providing QofS and protecting its brand name is very important to it in the UK - hence its slightly unusual for something to "escape" from BT which noone else is really doing in the UK like VoIP
However, I think BT have said they only expect about 7,000 customers for the service (shame as it comes with a very nice adaptor) and are using this just to put their feet in the water and have other, more advanced plans for VoIP in the future
You may want to read: http://www.bt.com/World/news/newsroom/document/n r9949.htm
Its a Press release dated 5th July confirming BT has ordered ADSL equipment to cover 6 million households (approx 25% of the population) to be installed by Spring 2000... so I would safely assume a decision has been made.. even if the teletubbies don't know about it yet..
As for the BT ADSL trial in London, that is due to finish in August...
Now the 2 remaining and important things are BT's exact rollout plans which they have said are coming "soon" and the price...
Slashdot Mirror
Finally, I'd really like to know where all these 3 million fibre-enabled households are, because we sure as heck aren't one of them and would love to have it, and we're fairly close to an exchange and in the middle of Cambridge, which is one of the most technology-focussed cities in the UK.
I think you mean 6 million but http://www.openreach-communications.co.uk/superfast/where-and-when/
The 'Future Exchanges' only goes into 2012 but the rollout will be going until (at least) 2014 when they expect to have covered 2/3 of the population.
Approximately 25% will be FTTP, the rest FTTC.
They claim is "Unlimited" but are getting taken to task by OFCOM for lying, as its really capped at 100gb per month, on their most expensive package.
Its not capped now - they abolished the old fair usage limits (which was 100gb and then increased to 300gb)
They now only cap p2p during peak periods and nothing else.
http://community.bt.com/t5/BB-Speed-Connection-Issues/BT-TO-SCRAP-300GB-LIMIT/m-p/141429#M65392 [bt.com]
Well, it seems BT's services have caps -- lower tiers have a pay cap, and higher ones have a cap (admittedly fairly high -- 300GB) after which service is throttled.
BT abolished the 300GB cap on its unmetered/unlimited tariffs earlier this year
They now only restrict P2P traffic during peak periods
http://community.bt.com/t5/BB-Speed-Connection-Issues/BT-TO-SCRAP-300GB-LIMIT/m-p/141429#M65392
a new study out from UK media lawyers Wiggin suggests that, if it works, such filtering could actually curtail "digital piracy" by 70 percent.
EU wants to play hardball? If they're smart, Microsoft could REALLY play this off to their advantage, making themselves look like a victim and getting the EU to back down.
Generally when a government or large organisation wants something it gets it. The bigger it is, the more likely it is to get its own way.
The EU represents 25 different countries (soon to be 27+) includes several of the biggest economies (including UK, France, Germany and Italy - thats over half the G7) in the world and currently has about 450 million people in it. According to the CIA handbook its economy is worth $13.31 trillion.
Microsoft, as you may have gathered is not the biggest kid in this particular playground - fighting a war with a governmental type organisation of this sort only ends in one loser and it wouldn't be the EU.
If Microsoft stopped selling in the EU - well apart from losing all that business, do you think European owned businesses in America and elsewhere won't also drop MS products?
What about American owned companies in Europe - they would be screwed too.
Than I see all the far eastern companies and governments dumping MS as well - I mean if a company was stupid enough to leave the EU - why should they take the risk that MS will try and do something as stupid in the future with them.
PC companies (Dell etc) would simply switch ASAP to OS to Linux or Apple both in Europe and then offer the same choice globally and MS can wave their monopoly goodbye..
Regards
Sunil
Looking at the mail address ajs318 might be british. I don't know if they have legally mandated coverage, but here in Denmark we have 2 years (with a change in the "burden of evidence" after six months, after that the customer needs to argue that the defect was not caused by treating the item wrongly)
:)
Actually, here in the UK, since last year, we have (virtually) the identical law here - probably based on some EU directive - even though "1 year" is frequently advertised with a little note:
"This does not affect your statuory rights"
I have always found this amusing but there are some many people who don't know their rights that companies get away with it.
Even better though - here in the UK - we have something here called the Sales of Goods Act which predates the above law (its from the 70's) and actually means that goods have to last a "reasonable" amount of time - with "reasonable" defined as up to 6 years! (slightly different period in Scotland) depending on the goods.
i.e. a cheap toaster won't be expected to last 6 years but you are on much safer ground with say a TV or a Washing Machine - especially if its not a bottom of the range one.
And the judges in the UK "Small Claims Court" always always seem to favour the consumer - and its the judges view of whats reasonable that counts!
In these cases, purchasers can demand damages (which a court would equate to the cost of a repair or replacement) - not bad hey - free (upto) 6 year guarantees in the UK..
If only more people knew their consumer rights here!
Regards
Sunil
But a 3 Billion pound scheme per year for 3/4 years.. making a total of about 10 billion (or 18/19 billion USD)
To find your PID, right-click on My Computer and hit properties to bring up the System control panel. The PID will be right under the "registered to" section. It will be, e.g., aaaaa-bbb-ccccccc-ddddd. If bbb is not 640, you or definately out of luck. If it is 640, feel free to give it a shot. Or, you can slways make you a new CD Key that works. :D
My (legit) XP install has a bbb of 012 - seems quite far from your 640 figure
God only knows what foriegn language he'd have to learn to go to Oxford or Cambridge Yes, its quite a challenge for many US students - it means that they would have to learn English, rather than American!
You can use BT's service, even if you don't have a BT line.
Vonage have said they plan to launch in the UK in the first half of next year, though I have heard of people using Vonage in the UK, via a US address.
http://www.iconnecthere.com/ offer London 020 numbers on their broadband service as well (though they may charge in $?)
For anyone interested, the technical specs and the way BT's VoIP service currently works is described at http://www.sinet.bt.com/420v1p0.pdf
/. ?
btw how does one do hyperlinks on
Could you elaborate on your BT comment please. I work for BT here in the states & would like more info on how we are in the 'home market'
:)
Hmm - where to start
BT is the dominant telco in the UK, so is generally seen as providing a very high Quality of Service (compared to cheaper telco's which use VoIP etc - BT as a rule don't) and its customer services are generally seen to be better than the two main cable companies (NTL and Telewest), as well as having a state of the art network (apart from the local loop)
However, BT also has all the baggage that comes with being the former monopoly phone company.
While it has world famous research facilities and is involved in things like settings for ADSL/VDSL etc and testing ADSL2+/VDSL etc- it is relatively slow at rolling them out commerically in the UK.
For example, its ADSL rollout only really started in 2000 (very late!), though it has already covered 85% of households and hopes to cover almost 100% by the end of 2005.
This is partly to do with BT's concern about quality of service - they won't release anything where standards have not been agreed and the equipment tested to death (unlike American/Japanese telco's who are more willing to take risks)
In the same way for ADSL - they only have RADSL in the upstream direction (though it hardly affects anyone). They refuse to "do" RADSL downstream like you have in the States as they don't want complaints about subscribing to an x speed service but only getting y speed etc.
As such, its "considered" (partly wrong as described above) not to react very quickly, and "reluctant" to provide new technology
Also, due to its regulation, it has to allow competitors to use its network and sell "wholesale" versions of almost everything its offers for less than it charges the public for them itself - hence sometimes seen as "expensive" as well - though the cable companies are often more expensive here in the UK for voice calls suprisingly.
Thus its reputation for providing QofS and protecting its brand name is very important to it in the UK - hence its slightly unusual for something to "escape" from BT which noone else is really doing in the UK like VoIP
However, I think BT have said they only expect about 7,000 customers for the service (shame as it comes with a very nice adaptor) and are using this just to put their feet in the water and have other, more advanced plans for VoIP in the future
You may want to read:n r9949.htm
http://www.bt.com/World/news/newsroom/document/
Its a Press release dated 5th July confirming BT has ordered ADSL equipment to cover 6 million households (approx 25% of the population) to be installed by Spring 2000... so I would safely assume a decision has been made.. even if the teletubbies don't know about it yet..
As for the BT ADSL trial in London, that is due to finish in August...
Now the 2 remaining and important things are BT's exact rollout plans which they have said are coming "soon" and the price...