BT pull out of Phorm

[Ian Batten]

On 06 Jul 09, at 1452, Nicholas Bohm wrote:

> Theo Markettos wrote:
>> BT say they have "no immediate plans" to use Phorm's service
>> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8135850.stm
>> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/06/bt_phorm/
>>
>> Given that many speculated that BT were only sticking at it because  
>> they
>> were contractually obliged, I wonder how they managed to wriggle  
>> out of the
>> contracts?  Or maybe they think that Phorm is weak enough not to be  
>> able to
>> sue?
>
> More likely such speculations were wrong (no basis for them was ever
> shown, as far as I've seen), and BT never committed itself to  
> deployment.

Quite so.  The most that a large company would sign with a startup  
would be ``we'll look at your product.  You won't sell it to other  
people without our agreement, and we won't talk to your competitors  
without your agreement, for a period of X months''.   But even then,  
it's hard to see why they'd bother: BT didn't have exclusivity ---  
Virgin and CPW was being courted as well --- so why would BT commit to  
anything?  What possible power did Phorm have to get BT to do anything  
beyond signing an NDA?

ian