USO Launches this week!

[Noodleyman]

Perhaps they would charge you for the cost of launching the satellite?

This made me chuckle....

So, a Starlink satellite is reported to cost about $250,000 (esimated), and the cost of launching one is $15m using the funky SpaceX rockets. based on xe.com currency conversion, that's £11,361,086.47.

The highest quote reported here so far was from @JTScotland at £1.1m.. assuming based on username, that'll be Scotland.

so, in theory, and assuming others in the Scotland area got equal quotes.. only 11 USO quotes required to fund a SpaceX launch and own a Starlink satellite

 

[JTScotland]

This made me chuckle....

So, a Starlink satellite is reported to cost about $250,000 (esimated), and the cost of launching one is $15m using the funky SpaceX rockets. based on xe.com currency conversion, that's £11,361,086.47.

The highest quote reported here so far was from @JTScotland at £1.1m.. assuming based on username, that'll be Scotland.

so, in theory, and assuming others in the Scotland area got equal quotes.. only 11 USO quotes required to fund a SpaceX launch and own a Starlink satellite

Do you think if we all added our RGVS and Scottish vouchers together then we could afford our own satellite?
Assume 20,000 qualify for the £5k + £1.5k RGVS voucher = £130m!
I see a business opportunity for our own satellite network

 

[greentrident]

So having a quote of £2k to £5k over the £3400 I was surprised to find my next door neighbour was quoted less than £3400 and so wouldn't have anything to pay! It's only 2m away so that seems like an expensive 2m trench!

 

[Alzow]

Perhaps they would charge you for the cost of launching the satellite?

With the addition of - 'Houses Passed - 1'.

 

[Noodleyman]

Adding an update to my ongoing situation. I thought my ombudsman journey was at an end. However, I think it was just some admin tasks on the ombudsman system which marked the case as closed, then cloned it and set it back up.. which later became active. I have 3 cloned cases, two of which are closed. it's a bit confusing but the important thing is the complaint is still progressing.

The initial reply to the complaint by BT is almost entirely a copy/paste of how the USO from the BT website and doesn't directly address any of the open questions. It also included that if I want more details I need to accept the quote.. in other words, I have to commit to spending £60,000 without knowing what I would be getting for my investment, in order to decide if I want to spend £60k as an investment.

It's on par with deciding to blindly buy "a car" for £60k, but having no idea what you'll get. could be something out of the scrap heap.

I've provided a rather lengthy, detailed response outlining the procedural gaps, cross referenced with the USO framework and will see where it goes. I hope I am pleasantly surprised.. but time will tell.

Did anybody else make any progress via the ombudsman route yet?

 

[Noodleyman]

and, it's official. I am 100% done with the USO and it's unfit for purpose in some cases.

Ombudsman review and investigation is complete and agreed that BT have provided a detailed quote and have adhered to all the terms and conditions outlined in the USO framework.

So, not being given any details about what your £60k is going to be spent on apparently is detailed. I still feel this is unreasonable, however there are no other options but abandoning all hopes of a USO connection as I've exhausted all options within it's remit.

Also, it would appear that openreach is not considered part of BT for the purposes of USO/Community scheme quotes, and thus are not held to the same standards.

I directly quote:
"
Openreach’s website for Community Fibre Partnerships, confirms that you can partner with Openreach to get faster broadband to your community. While I acknowledge there is a considerable difference between the costs quoted, the document you were sent on 14 October 2019 was from Openreach, not BT. I am satisfied that Community Fibre Partnerships is run by Openreach directly and BT are not involved in this scheme. I am therefore unable to ask BT to explain the difference between the quotes and BT are unable to provide this information.
"

Anyway.. *mic drop*.. done :/

now to wait for LTO to become available and hope it's reasonably priced whilst binning every BT service I have once the contracts are up.