In these cases again the only ISP is the one that buried the cable, but they're usually community owned, so I guess if they do censorship (and I don't know if they do) you'd be better placed to argue that policy should change than I am.

For maybe 10% of UK residents this is the most practical way to get 'good' Internet access, a larger percentage could buy this, but they could also switch to an ISP using Openreach and still get acceptable Internet access.Ī relatively small number of users live somewhere with no decent Internet via Openreach, no cable TV, but enough local enthusiasm plus money to bury fibre and build their own network.

In this case Virgin is your only possible ISP. The main exception is if you have cable TV in your area (most larger cities, some suburban regions) you can choose to buy the DOCSIS service from the only company that owns all large cable TV service in the UK, Virgin Cable. Thus, most big UK ISPs are using Openreach and you could switch to any of the others (including A&A), in principle literally overnight, since all the physical infrastructure is unchanged, just somebody has to plug different values into a database so they're billing a different ISP and your traffic goes to that ISP not the previous one. Openreach doesn't offer service to end users, its products are wholesale only, ISPs buy the wholesale product, at prices fixed by regulation, and sell Internet service (they also of course need to buy backhaul, routers, set up a call centre and so on, Openreach just makes the 'last mile' work) In the UK, which is what we're talking about, the situation goes like this:įor most people there is FTTC or FTTP owned by 'Openreach' the successor to the national telephone monopoly which thus owns most of the 'last mile' of copper cable either under pavements in urban areas or hanging from telegraph poles elsewhere.

What is tor mode