From owner-freebsd-chat Wed Dec 23 10:30:28 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id KAA20764 for freebsd-chat-outgoing; Wed, 23 Dec 1998 10:30:28 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from post.mail.demon.net (finch-post-10.mail.demon.net [194.217.242.38]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id KAA20758 for ; Wed, 23 Dec 1998 10:30:26 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from dmlb@ragnet.demon.co.uk) Received: from [158.152.46.40] (helo=ragnet.demon.co.uk) by post.mail.demon.net with smtp (Exim 2.10 #2) id 0zst35-0006iL-00; Wed, 23 Dec 1998 18:30:19 +0000 Received: from dmlb by ragnet.demon.co.uk with local (Exim 1.82 #1) id 0zsisQ-0006fR-00; Wed, 23 Dec 1998 07:38:38 +0000 Message-ID: X-Mailer: XFMail 1.3 [p0] on FreeBSD X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <367FF436.96D9CBC6@uk.radan.com> Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1998 07:38:37 -0000 (GMT) From: Duncan Barclay To: Mark Ovens Subject: Re: Phone rates Cc: Brett Glass , tj-fbsd@funbox.demon.co.uk, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On 22-Dec-98 Mark Ovens wrote: > > > Duncan Barclay wrote: >> >> On 21-Dec-98 Mark Ovens wrote: >> > >> > >> > Brett Glass wrote: >> >> >> >> At 11:15 AM 12/21/98 +0000, tj-fbsd@funbox.demon.co.uk wrote: >> >> >> >> >Capitalism may reign supreme over on your side of the water, but >> >> >British Telecom is unfortunately rather too good at sucking in the >> >> >profits over here... >> >> >> >> I understand that there are two others: Mercury and another. Are >> >> they undercutting BT or just going along for the ride? >> >> >> > >> > Part of the problem is that BT still own all the major inter-city >> > trunks, so even if you use Mercury making a call from, say, London to >> > Manchester still has to use BT lines, which Mercury has to pay for. So >> > BT still holds the upper hand. >> > >> >> Actually, this isn't right. >> >> There are still a lot of BT only trunks but Mercury >> have their own or use trunks laid down next to railway lines by British R >> ail (second largest trunk network in the UK). Energis and Scottish Telecom >> have >> thier own lines, Energis wraps fibre optic cable around its parents power >> transmission lines and have UK wide coverage. Not sure how Scottish power >> does >> it, it may be the same as Energis. >> > > I stand corrected. So why then does BT still seem to have a stranglehold > over telecomms? It still has the majority of the "Local Loop", i.e. the cabling from exchange to the house. Cable TV companies are getting some of it and some went wireless with Ionica who have just gone bust. Ionica was a shame, partly because they own their HQ is the building next to the one I work in and my company designed a lot of the kit and partly because they were shat upon by the venture capitalists who didn't release a pot of money. Duncan --- ________________________________________________________________________ Duncan Barclay | God smiles upon the little children, dmlb@ragnet.demon.co.uk | the alcoholics, and the permanently stoned. ________________________________________________________________________ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message