Thousands could be booted from BT Anytime

'Gross violation' of Ts and Cs to blame

By Tim Richardson, 15th October 2001

Thousands of people could be evicted from BTopenworld's Anytime if they continue to ignore calls to temper their usage.

The ISP wouldn't say exactly how many are at risk of being disconnected, but it appears that a significant number are on the brink of being kicked off.

Ben Andradi, President & COO of BTopenworld, told The Register that the service has been plagued by a small minority of heavy users who are in "gross violation of our terms and conditions".

And although they've been warned that using the service for commercial purposes - or leaving their dial-up connection unattended - is in breach of the ISP's terms and conditions, many users have simply ignored BTopenworld's calls for moderation.

Last month, 34,000 people were migrated to a new dial-up number. BTopenworld claimed it made the move to help balance the network. However, many complained that following the move their service deteriorated overnight.

Some reports alleged that BTopenworld was running a two-tier system offering a sub-standard service to these heavy users in the hope that they would either upgrade to a broadband service or cancel their BTopenworld subscription.

However, BTopenworld maintains it's given the 34,000 people a superior service, but that this has been eroded by exceptionally high usage.

Said Mr Andradi: "Some people are using a disproportionate amount of our network resource."

And it is these people who Mr Andradi wants to see targeted.

In a letter due to be sent to some BTopenworld subscribers today Mr Andradi is expected to apologise for the congestion problems experience so far.

He is expected to say: "We've checked the service on the new dial-up number and again found a significant number of customers breaching our Terms & Conditions. We're taking action against them to protect the integrity of the service. This should improve availability on the new number but, with the level of use we're seeing, it's possible that the benefits will simply be 'swallowed up'."

In the last month BTopenworld has terminated the accounts of some 260 users from its service. ®

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