Comment Articles

Shock! Horror! A cable company that trusts its customers!

Rupert Goodwins AnchorDesk

Published: 24 Oct 2001 17:30 BST

I've seen some rum things on the Internet. People who collect the little sticky labels that go on fruit. People who think that the Inuit are the lost tribe of Israel. Even people who enjoy eating sprouts. But this week, I saw something that put everything that's gone before into the shade. I can't swear that the heavens were rent asunder or that Birnham Wood had come to Dunsinane, but there must have been portents of cosmic proportions. What happened -- and I still can't quite believe it -- was that a cable company told its customers exactly what was going on, in detail and at length.

You're probably still in shock, so let me fill in some background. Telewest Communications is one of the two UK cable companies left standing, the other being ntl. As well as analogue telephones and cable TV, it also does BlueYonder cable modem Internet access and Active Digital TV. It has been heir to all the frailties of cable companies -- huge debts, aggressive expansion through acquisition of incompatible competitors, a deadly battle with BskyB, and that awkward business of getting customers what they want when they want it. It, like many a consumer telecommunications company, has picked up a lot of stick along the way for dodgy customer support, strange billing habits, deadlines missed and promises not quite kept. A lot of that has been justified.

Lately, there have been noticeably more problems. I've been on the service for nearly a year, using it for Web access, Usenet and various oddities, but not for email or gaming. I've had some trouble; less than I had with DSL, on the whole, but enough to be aware that all wasn't pure joy. Other users have been more raucous in their reactions -- if you look at the Telewest newsgroups, you'll see no shortage of immoderate language condemning Telewest for various sins.

Of course if you look elsewhere you'll find ntl, BT and others attracting equal, if not even more spirited, opprobrium. I know what to expect if I try and get through to the press offices of most of these people -- a harassed but impossibly good natured PR will put me through to some marketing suit or another, who'll explain that nothing is wrong and a few irate punters don't make a big story.