ISP Review interviews Duncan Ingram (Senior VP) BTOpenworld

The one lesson everyone in the industry has learned over the past year is that this is a fast moving area, subject to great highs and lows. We believe that we have set BTopenworld on a positive course, by listening to what customers want and finding ways to meet these expectations. We intend to continue with this dialogue and to develop new products and services.

The other great lesson of recent times has been that companies must have good and sensible business plans to last five or 10 years. We believe that we have always acted responsibly and avoided jumping on passing bandwagons. The best thing we can do for our customers is to run a good business, which gives them the confidence that we will be serving them in five or 10 years by continually improving our quality of service and products and become profitable.

21) If you could change one thing about the industry as it is now, what would it be?

I would change people's perception of the Internet.

The Internet has the potential to open the whole world to those who use it and as an ISP we understand that this as our raison d'etre. We need to enable the Internet to be open to everyone - in place of the walled garden approach that still exists.

People need to understand, however, that access to the Internet cannot be free. The past year has seen a dramatic change in the business models of Internet companies - the Internet advertising business has collapsed and paid for content is becoming the norm. People must stop seeing this as a bad thing.

22) Any last minute words for our readers?

I would ask that people stop knocking broadband and instead take the time to appreciate the incredible opportunities it presents for users. Continually knocking broadband will only create a downward negative spiral in customers eyes- let's work together to make it happen.

END

ISP Review would like to thank the people at BTOpenworld, especially Duncan Ingram, for their useful input in this lengthy Interview, hopefully readers will now have a better perspective on BTO and R/ADSL broadband as a whole.

IMPORTANT NOTE: We're currently putting together an Interview with BTIgnite related to the more technical aspects of xDSL (ports, compression etc.) and even ISDN etc. Watch for this in the very near future.

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