On Tue, Feb 09, 2010 at 01:10:51PM +0000, MJ Ray wrote:
co-op because our own support staff have as much access as the private companies' support staff and (IMO) are generally more expert and friendly instead of reading from a script, there's some strength in numbers and you can switch backend supplier (say if BT are failing as they sometimes do) without switching away from the co-op.
I would say that I wouldn't use any service provider who reads from a script unless it was my only choice, certainly many providers do not read from a script so the co-op offering is hardly unique.
Anyhow, all of the advantages of the co-op (which are mostly limited to technical support it seems) are available from many private companies but they don't offer support for for anything technically innovative unlike many (mostly smaller) broadband providers in the UK. Also, I just took a look at the pricelist for co-op broadband! Youch! and they also traffic shape connections on top of that! I also can't find any documentation on the phone co-op website covering if the connections they provide are censored or not.
Adam