As you may know from previous posts, I don't think much of the broadband "service" Tiscali provides here in the UK. In fact if they had not slightly redeemed themselves by sending a cheque in today's post refunding the two months they continued to charge me when I left for a real ISP then I may have been even less kind in response to their comments in the news today.
Here are a few select sections of the BBC's story today:
Internet services providers, such as Tiscali, say that the raft of recently launched on-demand services will "undoubtedly" congest the network.
Bit late for that, isn't it? In my experience and that of those I know who have used Tiscali, their network has suffered from chronic peak time congestion for months because of their greed in piling on as many subscribers as possible without spending on increasing network capacity.
"Our position is that high bandwidth content services like iPlayer are being launched without proper attention to the cost of delivery," said Tiscali.
My position is that Tiscali has been promoting an "unlimited" internet service (whatever that means, since they threaten customers who use more than a few hundred Mb per month in peak time with disconnection) without proper attention to the cost of providing that service, and hence provide a substandard service instead.
"As these services become more popular they will undoubtedly cause congestion. It is only broadband operators that can increase bandwidth and this comes at a cost."
That's hardly new news :) It hasn't stopped them from allowing their network to all but seize up before, presumably to maximise profit… It's not like it's an insurmountable technical challenge - I use Sky Broadband (which is effectively an Easynet LLU connection) and it doesn't suffer from decreased speeds at any time of the day or night, and it is nearly half the price of my old Tiscali package (though I concede that it is a subsidised service provided to Sky TV subscribers.)
The company is particularly concerned about the BBC iPlayer, which trial launched last month, as it is a free service that could "gain momentum quickly".
I think this roughly translates as "we're worried that there will come a tipping point at which the majority of customers will realise their service is substandard and will leave us" - presumably that means the remainder will get something approaching acceptable speeds though, so every cloud etc…
I know a former Tiscali customer for whom the iPlayer refused to work, yet it magically came to life when they moved to a real ISP, in this case Newnet who I can highly recommend for anyone who doesn't have unbundled LLU operators to their exchange.
In summary, I think the real problem is that some ISPs are not providing the service they claim to and the rise of services like the iPlayer and 4OD will only serve to further highlight the divide between those who provide a quality service and those who take the money and run.
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