> Like you, I am a UK Limewire user and I also feel hard done by the British ISPs

broadband was very late/slow in getting going in the first place here i think -- BT. i remember working in london in the early/mid 90s and BT were running work from home telecommute ads on the tube. the place i now live (less than 100 miles from london) broadband was only actually available at all a few years ago. dial up was the only option until not too long ago. that's over 10 years after they're running telecommute ads (for which you surely require broadband -- they were showing video conferencing i think in the ads). and the uk is what, the fourth richest country in the world? and it's densely populated and small compared with others so easier to cover. and we've been in a telecommunications revolution for the last so many years. and, BT have a communications network monopoly in the UK... stunning.

>Finally, I would like to know Ofcom’s position on P2P throttling, after all, they are the body that is supposed to regulate ISPs and protect the consumer from misleading adverts and arbitrarily imposed regulations.

yes, it's not the p2p throttling issue itself alone which is the key issue, it's that, in conjunction with the way the service/products is offered; a company can offer whatever product with as many restrictions as they want -- they just have to be upfront about it. and clearly tiscali, and i'm sure others, have not been upfront to many, many people. i suppose a lot of the people don't even know they're being restricted though, therefore isn't an issue for them.

it really is clearly a legal issue. as well as ofcom there's ASA, the advertising standards authority.

I wholeheartedly agree, I just don't have any confidence that these "regulatory bodies" have any real teeth.


UK Bob

asa don't have legal power but companies do generally comply with their requests i think, as not doing so makes them look very bad.

not exactly related but i know for a fact advertising agencies (any established main ones at least) do exactly what the asa request without fail (maybe some exceptions but generally full compliance is ad agency's response) -- i know advertising agencies aren't exactly the issue here though so that's slightly off issue.

but the asa do have an effect when they say something. whether they end up officially saying what needs saying or not is another thing.




i just got a call from tiscali regarding my p2p problem which resulted in nothing but me getting angry.

"we don't block p2p software" was something that was said with some passion and belief. the workers must have had this drumemd into them. they do block though i reckon as when p2p doesn't work other apps work fine, so it's not down to simple general congestion.

"we never said you'd be able to use p2p". i said yes you did. simply by offering an internet connection without stating "no p2p use" offers p2p, as p2p is _a_ use of the internet, just like any other use (email, web pages etc.). <<<< it's this whole point which is the crux of it imo. they offered an internet connection, but we have a particular-uses-of-the-internet-not-others connection. "internet connection" does not fairly/legally describe a particular-uses-of-the-internet-not-others connection.

"you'll find all the others are the same" (not those actual words but something like it) the imiplication being if you go elsewhere you'll get the same and that makes it ok for us to do it. same elsewhere is true, ok to do it, not imo.

i'm going to continue to email... i'm starting to enjoy the argument -- i feel i'm right.

i've been thinking about making a small claim in a court for some time. it seems to me there is a genuine case. "internet connection" includes p2p. so when an internet connection is offered that means p2p use is being offered. if that argument stands up, including against all tiscali's legal blurb which you were supposed to read when you signed up, then there really is a case i reckon. problem is a very small amount of time p2p is semi-usable so it's not a case of p2p not being useable at all, full stop.