Broadband Pressure Group

[Nathan]

Like it or loath it high speed Internet is rapidly becoming a necessity for many and while BT and other providers tout services as "Up to 8Mbps" or even "Up To 20Mbps" the reality is that Hilton lives in the technical dark ages. The most you're likely to see is ~2Mbps and for the majority it's more like 512Kbps. 1/16th or 1/40th of the maximums advertised.

There are plans afoot by both the government and BT themselves to upgrade connectivity to everyone in the UK, however it is unlikely that Hilton will see anything like those services currently promised, let alone any future advances in ADSL technology. So, do we want to be cast asunder in the growing digital age?

What can we do?

As I and many others see it, there is little point calling BT customer services and complaining. You simply get lost in the behemoth that is corporate BT. What we should do however is come together as a cohesive group and pressure BT at a higher level. To do that we need to get as many people involved to help as possible and then pressure their CEO.

So, if you're interested in helping to beat up corporate BT please join this thread with any ideas or suggestions you might have.

One thing we must do however is continue to grow the forum so that we can reach the entire village, thus if anyone is interested in helping to advertise us please also post.

To keep a log of where we are in the village as far as ADSL connections is concerned I've also included a poll, please add your vote.

If you don't know how to measure your connection speed, please visit: http://www.speedtest.net/

[peter1910uk]

I'm in.

[helen-g]

I'm in!

[adwoodrow]

I'm in too. it will be interesting to see how Hilton actually compares to the rest of the country, where a recent Ofcom survey has shown that almost 20% of broadband connections are less than 2Mbps. To make the results valid we need to get most of the 300 registered users of this forum to submit their results, then we can formulate a plan for future action.

[Nathan]

I'm actually hoping that together we can get more people involved in this group and the forum as a whole.

If BT had 7000 people all wanting someting done then maybe those whispers on the grapevine about Hilton and Fibre ccould be pushed to reality?

[adwoodrow]

My point was that you need to get near the 300 to see if there is actually a problem or not (defining a problem as less than 2Mb average which is what the government has done). Then we need to have a serious plan to get the whole village on board. BT puts the costs of cabling the whole country at around £200 per househould I believe which isn't actually that much. I believe we could collectively do something to raise these funds to get round the fact that we aren't going to be that high up BT's priorities for investment however much fuss we make, without doing something for ourselves.

[Nathan]

I think it's patently obvious that there's a problem both in the length/quality of cabling from Etwall to the village and the back haul provision in the exchange. Having spoken with a lot of residents dotted around the village and BT engineers the fact is that the POTS infrastructure in Hilton is just that, plain old telephones and not designed to carry ADSL efficiently.

When we first had our ADSL installed the engineer spent around 2 hours finding the best line in the street cabinet, stating after he'd found it that "all the lines were an absolute joke".

My issue is that BT will meet those provisions set out by the government as basic requirements. However that then sentences Hilton to be permanently at least 1step behind as far as broadband technology is concerned. While other areas will start to get 8 or 20Mbps or fibre connections we'll be stuck with the "basic requirement" of 2Mbps.

Joking aside, if the cables keep getting stolen BT may well consider fibre as the best option (no that's NOT a suggestion).

Either way, we won't get anywhere simply by sitting around moaning that the ADSL is crap in Hilton. If we want it improved we have to get everyone involved and meet BT head on.

[Andy]

Yes I agree. Happy to help where I can, I frequently work from home and it drives me nuts how slow the connection is.
Currently online at my dad's in Aldridge with a connection speed of just short of 9MB

[adwoodrow]

Ok, would it be worth meeting in a local hostelry to discuss this, create a plan, and a team and share tasks to get Fibre for Hilton?

[peter1910uk]

I'd be up for that, Colin could host!!