To Plusnet Staff

[#1]

X47c,
Whilst I agree with you in the narrow context you illustrate, the cost of maintenance is averaged out across the while subscriber base - no one pays the true cost of service, otherwise rural dwellers would be paying £100s a month and urban dwellers coppers a year.
Whatever, a once and for all replacement of shot infrastructure has to be cheaper than repeatedly sending out engineers.  When at my business premises last year, myself and my immediate neighbour had on average an engineer out every week for six months.  Fixing my line broke his and his mine.  Repeatedly bodging is expensive.
Unfortunately unlike the property rental comparison, there are regulatory standards which dictate must be done (for example functionality of gas appliances) and cannot be bodged up.  Something similar is need in respect of BTOR circuits.

[#2]

Not to muddy the waters but ......you then run into the difference between capital and revenue expenditure - replacing poles/lines is definitely capital whilst sending out engineers to bodge is revenue. From my experience in a large organisation the first things chopped back  are capital budgets and the bean counters seem to get much more excited about overspends on capex than they do on revenue budgets - thats a "management" issue ie employ cheaper monkeys!!

[#3]

...and that has been an issue with British industry for far too long.
A pound spent on capital or revenue matters is still a pound spent.
A pound spent on capital gives a lasting reusable asset.
A pound spent on revenue is lost when spent.
This is the underlying issue with British industry, it is run by bean counters and not engineers.  Engineers know what's required to do the job, bean counters know only the cost of everything and the value of none of it.  I'm reminded now of what I hated most of working in IT for so many years - bean counters cut the development budgets (because it was seen as capital) with the intent of fixing forward operational issues (revenue expenditure).  Everyone then wonders why their technology experience is so bad.
Come the day of the glorious revolution bean counters will be the first against wall!

[#4]

The issue is not so much to do with capital or revenue but short term or long term. Managers are paid bonuses paid on performance over stupidly short periods. If all senior management were paid bonuses in shares that could not be sold for at least 10 years there would be a totally different attitude.