[Info-vax] SFF and MIME

[John Wallace]

On Dec 16, 2:58 pm, "Richard Brodie" <R.Bro... at rl.ac.uk> wrote:
> "Bob Eager" <rd... at spamcop.net> wrote in message
>
> news:7oq5l2F3q81a7U3 at mid.individual.net...
>
> >>    Comcast and Verizon:  two competitors I hate to deal with because
> >>    they both still think they are single source utilities.
>
> > From what I can see, we in the UK are at least lucky that we can all
> > choose from dozens of ISPs. OK, most of them are rubbish, but...!
>
> There is a tendency to think that all problems with ISPs are due to lack
> of competition. To be honest, here in the UK, the margins are so thin
> that most ISPs end up equally bad. As with airlines, people complain
> about the service but end up buying the cheapest...

That may apply to the high volume "consumer" ISP market in the UK,
where there seems to be a worst case combination of "how cheap can we
make it" (cheap as in awful, as well as in low cost) combined with
"how awkward can we make it to get out of the contract" (Sky,
TalkTalk, etc). But there are still a few ISPs, not necessarily well
known ones, that will charge (a lot) more in return for a better
service. Whether this will still be the case five years from now
depends on how many customers they manage to attract and retain.
AAISP, Zen, and a few others in between are probably worth a look.