Just who is BTOpenworld?

[loz]

Noticing several comments that seem to suggest BT try to pass BTOpenworld
off as a different company when anyone complains I took a look at the terms
and conditions
Quote

"Conditions for BTopenworld home 500"
"BT Group Company" means a BT subsidiary or holding company, or a subsidiary
of that holding company, all as defined by Section 736 of the Companies Act
1985 as amended by the Companies Act 1989.
"we" and "us" means British Telecommunications plc.
"We agree to provide you with the Service on the terms and conditions of
this Contract and in performing our obligations under this Contract we will
exercise the reasonable care and skill of a competent telecommunications
service provider"

So looks to me like I am being provided a service by BT.

Interestingly the business products are worded slightly differently
"Conditions for BT Openworld Business Products"
"BT" means British Telecommunications plc of 81 Newgate Street, London EC1A
7AJ registered in England No. 1800000.
"BT will:
(a) provide the Customer with the Service in accordance with this
Contract"

Which is even more clearly spelt out as BT.

Then have a look at the web site. If you follow the links from bt.com you
finally get to bt.com/openworld. (same as btopenworld.com). click on "to
find out more", then on 'about us"
"What is BTopenworld? BTopenworld is BT's new global mass-market internet
business. It brings together BT's existing UK and international internet
service providers (ISPs) and portals. This includes Genie, Europe's leading
mobile centric portal, and the UK's leading broadband access and portal
services.

Then in the bit marked "BTopenworld Strategy", is the interesting quote
"Our aims are to create access businesses that are profitable in their own
right, portals that are profitable in their own right and create value for
BT overall."

So, BTopenworld is clearly there to create value in BT. So how can it not be
part of BT?

The final nail in the myth that BTopenworld is not part of BT is on the BT
Corporate "about us"
"BTopenworld is part of the BT group. British Telecommunications plc (BT) is
a publicly listed company registered in England. Its principal activities
include the provision of local, national and international
telecommunications services, mobile communications, internet services and
data transport solutions.
On April 13th 2000, Sir Peter Bonfield, CEO BT, announced a far-reaching
restructuring of the BT group to create a number of new operating
businesses:
BT Retail
Responsible for BT's relationships with UK consumers.
Ignite
A data-centred broadband IP business focused on corporate and wholesale
markets.
BTopenworld
A mass-market internet business focused increasingly on broadband and mobile
internet services.
BT Wireless
An international mobile business emphasising mobile data and next generation
services.
Yell
An international directories and e-commerce business. "

So there you have it.
BTOpenworld IS registered as a separate company. But is clearly part of the
BT Group.

So next time they try to fob you off quote this lot at them

regards
loz

[gmr]

I was a customer of BTI since just about day one. BTI have used this excuse
for all those years. Now I'm with BTOW and they now use it. But in reality
I'm still with BTI and still ultimately with BT.

Does anyone really believe that BTI support is completely separate from BTOW
support? (Just a coincidence they're both in the same part of Scotland is
it?) Same story for billing. Same for engineering. Same for systems and
hardware. Same poorly trained contract staff. Same hopeless management.
Same problems as ever.

Four years ago the BTI ngs were full of complaints about failed connections,
slow surfing during peak times and crappy news server and mail server
performance. They were always "investigating" and nothing ever got fixed in
less than a 8 week timeframe. Every few months BTI would say they were
upgrading. Sometimes things would get better for a few weeks then
deteriorate.

Sound familiar?

"loz" <l.wi...@nospam.btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:964a7l$gnh$1...@plutonium.btinternet.com...

[Ian Nartowicz]

The BT Openworld support we call on out 0845 number is indeed different from BT
Internet. In some respects it would be better if they were the same since so
many of the common problems we face are really BT Internet stuff.

All this separate company stuff is about being able to run a company without
getting stomped on by Oftel, and a little bit about establishing real
competitive companies. At the end of the day you are using a company which
would not exist if it wasn't owned by BT since BT controls the exchange and
despite every effort, nobody has yet got access to that critical bit of out
telephone network. Until that changes, you will get crap service because you've
got nowhere else to go.

--ian

[gmr]

Same overall management, same building, different teams I suspect. Doesn't
make sense that they would set up a completely different unit when BTI was
already there.

"Ian Nartowicz" <ia...@excite.com> wrote in message
news:3A85B7EB...@excite.com...