On Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:35:07 +0000, Graeme Wall
wrote:

On 04/01/2012 11:52, Lüko Willms wrote:
In reality, if BT was not forced to operate as a profit oriented
commercial company, maintaining its position as the the British telecoms
operator, it would have lowered the prices according to the
technological advances. Deutsche Bundespost did in its times.

In reality it didn't, quite the contrary.

Some of BT's improvements have involved offloading many non-core
activities; once the line reaches your building you are very much on
your own now. Mercury was also mentioned but unlike BT they had
nothing in the way of a universal service obligation and served a very
small market. WRT cheapo international call providers, their quality
often displays how they achieve the low prices; at least with BT all
the callers' sentences tended to arrive intact.