Broadband Pressure Group

[adwoodrow]

That reminds me, I've been charged by twice for the same bad broadband line for the past six months, once by BT Residential and once by BT Business. I'd say they are useless from head to toe (but its the head that sets the strategy, pricing and puts across 'we couldn't care less about the last 40%; attitude.

[fruitbat]

Can't remember if it's been suggested here before - but in the absence of any concrete commitments from BT (despite the lobbying) perhaps we should be chasing a fairer pricing structure that relates to the service we receive - how about £1/month for each Mb/s line speed?

[uvalue]

Hello fruitbat do you really have just the one eye..........?

[fruitbat]

Hello fruitbat do you really have just the one eye..........?

Only after a decent night out on the beer and vin rouge........

[tmarcer]

I encourage everyone to write to the local MP (Mark Todd) quoting their internet speed and even send the results of your speed check as an attachment, I have done this on a couple of occasions, and have got to the stage now he is writing to the Head of Parliamentary Affairs for BT, my broadband speed is 0.12mb (embarrassing)

His email address is :

markwtodd@btconnect.com

Good Luck

[cjbell68]

Reading sites like ISPReview, more and more local authorities are taking their own initiative and setting up local and/or community based projects.

Perhaps this is the way to go for South Derbyshire; that way you don't need to rely on BT to provision a service - clearly they don't believe there is sufficient opportunity in the area to include any of our exchanges in their to-do lists.

[adwoodrow]

I see this evening that Amy's efforts are giving us even more of a national profile with two articles on PC Pro's website highlighting our woes, and BT's total lack of interest.

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/broadband/3 ... nd-excuses
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/broadband/3 ... -guarantee

If anybody from BT is reading, why don't you use Etwall Exchange as a rural exchange test bed, to show that there is a demand for FTTC?

[TheScribbler]

Good coverage - although the comments aren't overly sympathetic.

National TV next then - who wants to be on?

[fruitbat]

Well at least the comments weren't along the lines of those in the Burton Mail or Derby Evening Telegraph at the end of October which basically said that we should stop whinging and be thankful we weren't out of work or fighting in Afghanistan. Which is a fair point but....... .....perhaps not that relevant when it comes to using broadband for homework......

So, is Etwall an 8MB exchange as suggested by BT in the PCPro article? It's jut that in a recent conversation with BT (prompted by my billing rant, see above, which successfully got my direct debit back to it's original level ) the BT representative said that the maximum speed of the exchange was 1MB and my line was getting 1MB - so I was "doing well!". He also said that the exchange was being "upgraded" in 2010 - confirming (much) earlier posts. Is this upgrade to get the 8MB speed ?? I'm getting more and more confused as we go along here....

I encourage everyone to write to the local MP (Mark Todd) quoting their internet speed and even send the results of your speed check as an attachment, I have done this on a couple of occasions, and have got to the stage now he is writing to the Head of Parliamentary Affairs for BT, my broadband speed is 0.12mb (embarrassing)

His email address is :

markwtodd@btconnect.com

Good Luck

To be fair to Mark he's been on the case for a while now (as has Amy Plenderleith).

http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/hilto ... ticle.html
http://www.burtonmail.co.uk/burtonmail- ... ?id=458963
http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/news/ ... ticle.html

[adwoodrow]

The Etwall exchange is indeed 8Mb - ADSL Max to give it BT's name. The upgrade referred to is probably to the new faster ADSL2+ which is scheduled for 2011. That gives up to 20Mb (24Mb in theory), if you live close enough to the exchange, so basically most of us here in Hilton don't benefit as ADSL2+ is only better on distances under 3.5Km line length and most of us are over 5Km.