strattitarius writes "Mark Zuckerberg met with top mobile and telco executives to address concerns that Internet providers are becoming "simple pipes" as apps like WhatsApp eat into high-margin over-the-top services such as text messaging and even voice communications. Orange SA CEO Stephane Richard stated "The risk for us is being excluded from the world of services".
It would seem that the telcos are realizing that they have been behind the curve as Richard stated "A service like WhatsApp, to be honest, that's something we could've and should've come up with before". Ironically in doing so, they basically make the case that they had every chance and advantage to create these apps and monetize them just as WhatsApp and Skype have done."
(Score: 4, Interesting) by dublet on Friday February 28 2014, @09:40AM
You may say that European telcos have turned into dumb pipes, but to my regret, BT doesn't offer their fibre optic Infinity package without you getting a phone line as well. I recently asked their twitter service account why [twitter.com] and just gave me some rubbish generic answer asking me to just get their service. They very much still think they're a telephone company.
"If anyone needs me, I'm in the angry dome. [dublet.org]"
(Score: 2, Interesting) by allsorts46 on Friday February 28 2014, @11:17AM
Thanks for this. I was considering switching to BT Infinity (on Virgin right now), but I won't bother if they're going to force me to pay for a phone line too. Don't mind having one, but don't want to pay for something I never wanted in the first place.
(Score: 1) by dublet on Friday February 28 2014, @01:30PM
I'm in the same boat as you, have Virgin but they're not great. At the very least they don't make me have a land line.
"If anyone needs me, I'm in the angry dome. [dublet.org]"
(Score: 1) by isostatic on Friday February 28 2014, @12:21PM
Well to be fair you need a physical telephone line. It's FTTC, not FTTH. They pop round with a new faceplate for your socket, you bamboozle them when you say you're using your own router to establish the pppoe tunnel as their's doesn't even support static routes, let along OSPF, and you're set. Noone is forcing you to plug a phone in.
The cost that BT give you is £20 for the VDSL + £10 for the line rental
I'm sure they'd be happy to charge you £35 for the VDSL and not charge you any line rental
(Score: 1) by dublet on Friday February 28 2014, @01:42PM
To get the equivalent package I have with Virgin, I would need their top tier subscription, which is26 + line rental of 15.99, which makes 42 a month. Virgin are charging me 26.15.
All I want is their data pipe, not the phone connection so why would I pay for that? I understand that with DSL you're running it over the same physical connection but I have no interest in their voice service that with their pricing structure I would be paying for.
"If anyone needs me, I'm in the angry dome. [dublet.org]"
(Score: 1) by isostatic on Friday February 28 2014, @02:26PM
Why do you think you're paying for it? The costs of offering it with or without the phone service are probably insignificant, less than the costs of offering two separate systems. I believe that the way BT was structured in the unbundling of 15 years ago, it means you have to be charged separately, to prevent the monopolistic situation they have in the states.
If Virgin works for you, that's great, that's where we have a competition, in the ground (Virgin vs BT vs Wireless), and in the DSL cabinet (BT vs Zen vs Talk Talk vs A&A vs etc)
To be honest I have no idea how much I pay for my BT line, I get 80 down, 40 up, and it works fine with my mitel handset.