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| AngryofMayfair |
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 Registered Member #259 Joined: Thu Mar 27 2008, 05:16PMPosts: 1 | Here is a reply I had from the Phone Coop: Thanks very much for your enquiry. We have no intention of implementing phorm advertising and have taken this up with our broadband suppliers in order to ensure that they do not implement it. Thanks and Kind Regards Henry Richardson 01608 647729 www.thephone.coop | ||
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| Gordon |
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 Registered Member #287 Joined: Thu Apr 03 2008, 08:06PMPosts: 375 | Actually, I'd be a little bit concerned about the Phone Co-op. Not that I disbelieve what they say, far from it - they are a good ethical company, who I use for my phone calls now and then and have a modest £35 of shares in, but... From my memory of an old dial-up account that I had with them, I *think* that "our broadband suppliers" = Opal Telecom, a Carphone Warehouse company. Broadband may, of course, be a different matter to the old dial-up accounts, but if not, then perhaps the Phone Co-op should consider changing their supplier! | ||
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| madslug |
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 Registered Member #266 Joined: Tue Apr 01 2008, 12:11PMPosts: 771 | Last year in October, Opal / TalkTalk tried to move me from the supplier they were using (via a company takeover) to their new free broadband/line rental package. From a static IP address to a router which would only work on their system. Your reverse DNS lookup on your static/dynamic IP address should show who the ISP supplier is. | ||
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| Gordon |
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| Registered Member #287 Joined: Thu Apr 03 2008, 08:06PMPosts: 375 | "Your reverse DNS lookup on your static/dynamic IP address should show who the ISP supplier is." Being a Phone Co-op customer only for line rental and calls, not for broadband, I couldn't do that to find out who their supplier is myself, of course, and in the absence of a response from anyone who does use them for broadband, I'd rather forgotten about this thread. However... The Phone Co-op have introduced some new all-inclusive line rental + calls + broadband packages, using LLU. There is a warning that there are some differences, and clicking the link to find out more takes me to... http://www.thephone.coop/residential/saver_services.html ...which includes... "You will not get through if you dial 100 for an Operator. Directory enquiries is available on 118 114 and special assistance directory enquiries is available on 195." From the Magsys code look-up site, I find that 118 114 is the Opal Telecom (a Carphone Warehouse company) directory enquiries number. Personally, I wouldn't recommend these packages to my friends anyway - no matter who the ISP is and how good their reputation is, I always advise steering clear of anything with long contracts, and even their 12 month minimum contract on the old "Home" packages is too long to be acceptable in my eyes, never mind the minimum 18 month contract on these new unbundled packages. That personal objection aside though, to the best of my knowledge at the time of writing, Carphone Warehouse are the only company apart from BT who have said that they are definitely going ahead with Phorm. While, in the same way that (the odd cock-up excepted) BT currently only infect "proper" BT connections, not PlusNet, Waitrose, Post Office Broadband etc., Carphone Warehouse may have assured the Phone Co-op that their connections will remain unPhormed, if I was looking for a new ISP I would have to ask myself "Do I really want to give money to somebody who, having made a strong anti-Phorm statement, then gets well and truly into bed with the enemy by starting to use their LLU service?" As a Phone Co-op member for over eight years, I am, frankly, disappointed. My line rental costs me *more* than it did with BT - using direct debit and paperless billing, after recent VAT adjustments, £10.67 a month compared with BT's £10.27. There are other minor disadvantages such as their limited customer services hours compared to BT. Nothing too important though, and I used to think that it was worth using the Phone Co-op because my money was going to the right people. To me, though, introducing these new LLU packages indicates that, for all their fine words, instead of doing the right thing by telling Opal Telecom where to shove their service and looking for another supplier, the Phone Co-op are happy to use a company who think it's OK to inflict spyware on their customers and rip off website owners, so I am no longer so sure. (Edited to include extra clicky link, as it dawned on me that the Phone Co-op's anti-Phorm statement which I refer to is only mentioned in another thread, so anyone only reading this thread will not have seen it) [ Edited Sat Dec 06 2008, 11:01PM ] | ||
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| Gordon |
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| Registered Member #287 Joined: Thu Apr 03 2008, 08:06PMPosts: 375 | Further to the above, and slightly off-topic, but as we are talking about ISPs in general in this part of the forum I will include it. I said "I always advise steering clear of anything with long contracts, and even their 12 month minimum contract on the old "Home" packages is too long to be acceptable in my eyes, never mind the minimum 18 month contract on these new unbundled packages." A lot of people do not seem to understand the difference between a "penalty" for leaving an ISP who, say, advertise a one month contract but will ask you for money if you leave in the first 12 months, and having an actual 12 month contract. Taking my present ISP, Namesco, as an example. I signed up with them when I moved home in 2006, so it was a new activation, not a migration, on a one month contract. As such, I got "free" activation, and a "free" router - but if I had left within the first year it would have cost me about £75 as an early leaving penalty. That is fair enough - it cost them money to get my line activated, and if I had promptly left then that's money down the drain for them. Also, I would still keep the router, hence their charge being more than the average. Once you've been with them 12 months, they figure that they've had enough out of you in the way of monthly subs to be in pocket. While length of penalty period and actual charges vary, most ISPs seem to work on the same basis. The obvious alternative, of course, which some use, is that you pay the activation fee up front instead of getting "free" activation! A 12 month contract, on the other hand, means that you are stuck with paying your monthly subscription up to the end of that 12 month period - so if Namesco had a 12 month contract rather than a one month contract and, say, I had found that I wasn't happy with their service and left after three months, as my monthly sub was then £20 in round figures, I would have been stuck with paying £180 in "outstanding" monthly subscriptions for a service that I was no longer using. Some people weep and wail when they signed up for a new ISP with as much thought as they would use when picking a tin of beans off the shelf in the supermarket, didn't bother to read the small print, then find that their "one month contract" ISP want money off them when they move in a couple of months, and say "I'm being ripped off - this isn't a one month contract!" It is a one month contract - and it is very different to a 12 month contract! | ||
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| Gordon |
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| Registered Member #287 Joined: Thu Apr 03 2008, 08:06PMPosts: 375 | For the record... I e-mailed the Phone Co-op to ask if they used Opal Telecom as their broadband supplier, and later received a phone call from them confirming that they do. I haven't taken it any further yet - sitting down and writing a proper letter to them on the subject rather than making a simple enquiry will require some thought, but it strikes me as being rather like being happy to buy, say, a pair of socks from (mythical names) Feet-R-Us, whose employment conditions conform to EU standards, when Feet-R-Us are a division of Scumware Clothing, whose other operation, Tacky Pullovers, employ child labour in some dodgy overseas country at 5p a month. I find it difficult to believe that the Phone Co-op are unaware that Opal Telcom are a Carphone Warehouse company, and unaware that Carphone Warehouse are on the wrong side of the ethical fence, which makes me wonder (a) who you can trust, and (b) whether the internet is worth carrying on with. | ||
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