NTL / Telewest merger?

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Rivals demand access to NTL's new cable network

Simon Duffy, NTL's chief executive, said yesterday he may not proceed with the deal if that were a regulatory condition. "To say you must allow Uncle Tom Cobleigh and all to run around on our network would be a deal breaker."

It is understood that NTL would grant access to its enlarged network but only under certain strict financial conditions that allowed it to make a profit by charging competitors to use the country's cable network.

Rival telecoms groups said they would lobby the Office of Fair Trading to force NTL to grant them access to the cable network so they could offer telecoms services to cable homes in competition to NTL. Any charging structure demanded by NTL would probably end up being enforced by Ofcom, the telecoms regulator, which said yesterday it would wait to be invited to comment on the deal by the OFT.

What do you think?
Do you think that NTL should be made to ring everybody that they have ever upset and say sorry?
Should we all be allowed to send our network trafic through their network as and when we like?
Is the Pope an NTL customer?
Do we care?

[Bagpuss]

All my time with BT the line has never gone dead for days on end and customer services answer the phone- here endeth the customer service lesson for NTL

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Yes, but if NTL/Telewest merge, do you think that they should be forced to hand over the network to all their competition in the same way that BT was?

[Lucifer Box]

Yes, but if NTL/Telewest merge, do you think that they should be forced to hand over the network to all their competition in the same way that BT was?

Thing is, the BT network was largely laid and paid for with public money, so it wasn't really "their" network in the first place. The cable network was laid and paid for by the various CableCos' shareholders and other assorted creditors so it is truly "their" network.

If you built and paid for your own network at home, you wouldn't expect your neighbours to insist they be allowed to use it as well.

Still, I'm sure it's only fair.