Broadband Notspots

[Steve Nash]

Good Morning to you all

 

I was wondering any of you know of anyone experiencing real issues in getting Broadband in their community ?

 

Steve

[**Tilly**]

hello and welcome to cag

If you start a thread here Broadband and other Internet issues

 

you will get all the help you need.

tilly

[MARTIN3030]

Moved here.I know you have posted elsewhere too but you are likely to get more response from a thread of your own in this forum.

[Mark_Blackpool]

When I lived in Harlow, we couldn't get ADSL broadband, because the house was too far from the exchange.

 

When we lived in Welwyn Garden City, we couldn't get ADSL broadband because the house was too far from the exchange.

 

When we moved to Blackpool, we had to turn down three sets of business premises because... they were too far from the exchange.

 

When we moved back to another part of Harlow, we couldn't get ADSL broadband because the exchange (a sub-exchange of the town one) wasn't ADSL enabled.

 

Now in Hampshire in a rural area two miles from the exchange - we can just about get a 1MB service which I was amazed at as I expected that to be a "no" as well.

 

I suspect it has got a little better over the years, but ADSL is distance dependent and in my experience if you're much more than a mile or two from the exchange, cross your fingers, or forget it.

 

To be fair to BT, providing an ADSL service to many rural communities is never going to be cost-efficient.

 

My own experience does not tally with the BT claim that "99% of homes and businesses can already get broadband". Even if they slyly include the cable customers in this claim it has to be nonsense.

 

The broadband checker on the BT site is more accurate than it used to be, though, so you can get an idea before you move, though there's no guarantee. ADSL availability is sporadic at best.

 

The best thing is to always try and move into a street which is cabled, since it's often better anyway and gives you a choice of two. But IIRC only about 20% of the country is cabled.

 

Relying on the BT network only may well leave you with a choice of none, though 3G has come on somewhat and the Vodafone/O2 USB modems are worth checking out.

[mfpa]

Relying on the BT network only may well leave you with a choice of none, though 3G has come on somewhat and the Vodafone/O2 USB modems are worth checking out.

 

I have not encountered a mobile broadband dongle offering from O2 but Vodafone, 3, T-mobile and Orange all offer them. As I understand, Vodafone offers the best speed but availability of that speed is *very* limited. Also, the chances of not having 3g or "turbo" coverage increase as you move out into more rural areas. The quoted speeds are much better than dial-up or GPRS and the slower "broadband" offerings but nothing like the 8Mb speeds available if you live above the BT exchange. On 3, the pay-as-you-go broadband service costs the same as the contract service, apart from charging you more to buy the dongle in the first place.

 

I live nearly four miles from my local exchange and the fastest speed "available" is 512kb - speed test results vary between 50 and 350, interestingly slower in the day than evenings/weekends. The checker on BT's website has offered 2Mb for a long time but when I tried to upgrade to 1Mb the ISP accepted the offer then immediately had to move me back down as the line could not support it.

 

The street is cabled and there's a green duct surfacing in the pavement right outside. However, they will only supply as far as the house next door or opposite and neither my MP nor consumeractive could persuade them otherwise.