Any truth in statement from BT Sales?

glasgowsoundman

I had a sales call from "Kieran" from BT last night, at an inconvenient time, so I put them off until later. During the call, the salesman stated that BT can offer higher speeds than other providers because "they own the lines".

I know that they do own the lines, but can they offer higher speeds? Sounds a bit unlikely to me (at best) or potentially illegal/unfair business practise at worst.

kwikbreaks

Quite apart from the fact that BT broadband certainly isn't faster than many of its competitors the BT business who called you don't own the lines - that's BT OpenReach who don't deal directly with the public.

BT was split into separate business units some time ago and BT OpenReach (lines) and BT Wholesale (ADSL infrastructure) are not allowed to give BT Retail (the ISP) preferential treatment.

spike7451

The speeds BT can offer are more or less the same as everyone else.It's the same wiring from the exchange to your house,they might be able to offer you batter speeds in some areas ie non LLU services or the new Fibre Optic service,but in most cases they are the same as other providers.

Does sound dodgy tactics tho,when I was at NTL/VM/Sky ect we were always told never to slag off the competition as the company you worked for could face hefty fines if the company you slag off sues.

aerostar

Are you sure it WAS BT ? There are people purporting to be BT, but are not, did you check the caller ID or do 1471 ?

If it was BT then it would probably be a 0800 number, or a local number of one of their agents. If it was withheld, then it is probably NOT BT.

glasgowsoundman

kwikbreaks wrote: »

Quite apart from the fact that BT broadband certainly isn't faster than many of its competitors the BT business who called you don't own the lines - that's BT OpenReach who don't deal directly with the public.

BT was split into separate business units some time ago and BT OpenReach (lines) and BT Wholesale (ADSL infrastructure) are not allowed to give BT Retail (the ISP) preferential treatment.

That's what I was thinking. I wonder if he'll deny saying it, if I challenge him...

glasgowsoundman

aerostar wrote: »

Are you sure it WAS BT ? There are people purporting to be BT, but are not, did you check the caller ID or do 1471 ?

If it was BT then it would probably be a 0800 number, or a local number of one of their agents. If it was withheld, then it is probably NOT BT.

No, I didn't, but then he wasn't asking for any personal information. We don't have caller ID and the 'inconvenient time' was when I was just putting dinner on the plates for the family, so I wasn't going to check then.