One of the distinctive attributes of the various UK industries these days is the fact that it is open to competition. This means that a consumer, like me, have a choice of my own electricity supplier, gas supplier and of course, telephone supplier. Companies have been battling it out to gain more customers and launch various gimmicks just to attract new sign-ons to their services. Other companies who are not usually offering these services have also started to offer them in order to gain more revenue and a slice of the consumer market. Therefore, the likes of Tesco, who is a grocery store, also now offers electricity and gas and even mobile services!

A lot of people are still confused with this whole schema that they choose to remain with their lifelong and always-has-been providers such as BT, London Electric, British Gas, etc. Either they cannot be bothered with choosing another supplier or they are not aware that they are now able to do so.

But, is it really OPEN? Not quite.

Take my case with BT. When I moved into my new place, obviously, one of the essential services I need to establish is to have broadband internet connection at home. There are 2 choices:

1. Broadband by ADSL
2. Broadband by cable

I usually have option 2 in my past residences, provided well by NTL and Telewest. I would have continued with either one of them but unfortunately, they do not cover the area where I am living right now. So, I had to go to BT? Why? Simply because some of the ADSL broadband providers require a BT line.

Hence, my hands are tied.

I have requested a new line from BT but when they came around (mind you, not easily as I thought they would!) they told me that they still have to do some digging on the road before they could actually put a line up to the building. Unfortunately (again!), the building managers, who refurbished the old pub where I live now, did not inform them (BT) straight away so this work could have been done already. Now, I have to wait for another 2-3 weeks before I could get a line.

Annoying, isn’t it? You’d think that with all the competition going around, one would have a quicker response. But nooo…BT is well aware that people would still need to go to them for a phone line before they could switch to another provider. They say that they are trying to do their best to complete it as soon as they can but there is no real pressure there as they know that I have no where else to go.

Bah.

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