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Written by Dave Burstein
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 FT/Orange's Internet price increases infuriated even the conservative French government, Martyn Warwick reports. “What has caused the Sarkozy administration to bring in the big guns is that amongst the plans affected is a socially-inclusive low bandwidth offering that provides the poorest in French society with a basic five hours of web access a month for just €5. Under Orange's proposals this will rise to €6 - a paltry sum but with an explosive political charge beneath it. ... France's Minister for the Digital Economy, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, made the media rounds to stress that for reasons of 'social cohesion' within France some form of Internet service should always be available under the 'psychological level' of €20 a month.”
The OFCOM or FCC chairman needs to step up whenever broadband prices increase or be guilty of hypocrisy talking about broadband for all. Costs of broadband are largely going down, so prices should rarely be going up. This is the single most important reason people don't take broadband. Warwick also reports that after FT UK price increases, “Bitter Wallet produced an online guide showing disgruntled Orange customers how to terminate a contract
that had been broken not by them but by their service provider. Orange's initial reaction was, of course to bluster and posture although, depending on who a subscribers got through to at an Orange call centre, some contacts were cancelled and terminated. However, as it become evident that something like a mass protest was gathering momentum, more and more subscribers were faced with stonewalling by the operator and, in some cases (take a look at the Bitter Wallet website to see a stream of examples), outright refusal by Orange.” |
