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The Cable and Wireless Watch mailing list, generously hosted by Internet Discovery, has arrived! Follow the link above this ticker to subscribe using a simple form and get the latest views and news in your mailbox.
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I hope the list will be a success; I'd be particularly interested to hear of the experiences of people with cable TV who've had to change their contracts. Have you kept your free calls?
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I've written to the Consumer Pricing Manager asking for confirmation of the June 1998 cutoff date. After nearly four weeks there has _still_ been no reply, and I will be writing a follow-up letter soon.
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If you want to do something, write to him and ask how removal of free calls squares with the Videotron leaflet reproduced below: this is the issue on which CWC are vulnerable, and it's what I based my letter on.
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Also get in contact with Which? - they are interested and have clout. Some people are also emailing BBC TV's Watchdog; both email addresses are at the bottom of this page.
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OFTEL aren't worth contacting: they have no interest in any of the issues mentioned here, as I and others have found.
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If you have cable television and telephone you'll have been sent a letter asking you to change to a new CWC tariff. If you do so you'll lose your free local calls, as explained towards the end of the letter.
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If you have cable telephone only there's no change although you will receive a leaflet which 'encourages' you
to take cable television as well for 4.29 a month. Again you will lose your free local calls if you do so.
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I wrote to my MP; his letter to CWC was answered by the Consumer Pricing Manager. The reply is reproduced below, and is rather less than a resounding endorsement of the current pricing.
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I also wrote to the Prime Minister; after about three months the Department of Trade and Industry have sent a very strange reply full of wrong emphasis. It is reproduced below under 'The Government View'.
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It has become clear that many cable operators - not just CWC - charge more for 0845 numbers, as used by some ISPs for their national call access, than 0345 or 0645; quite often the charges for 0845 are more than for a normal local call (eg 0171 or 0181 in London).
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This appeared to be in breach of OFTEL guidelines; a correspondent who complained to OFTEL was told that only BT have price controls imposed on them so are forced to charge the same for 0345, 0645 and 0845. Cable operators can, in effect, charge what they like for those numbers.
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As a response The Direct Connection have set up VPoPs (virtual points of presence) so that you can dial a local number wherever you are and bypass 0845.
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Anyway, there are at least ten ISPs who have CWC lines so that you can connect using free local calls. There are links to them here.
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CWC are running a survey from their Web pages. Although well-presented it asks an unwise question. To 'Wouldn't it be great if ...' make sure that you put 'Internet access wasn't metered, as with my current Videotron connection'!
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The CWC yellow adverts, which started in newspapers, have spread to the Tube and railway stations.