BT Fibre Broadband - Race To Infinity

samuki

Opinions please on the whole "race to infinity" - a competition to decide which 5 (that's right, only FIVE!) areas will be added to the roll out plans for faster broadband speeds. The list of the 300 towns to soon have fibre broadband can be found here: h**p:// www .silicon.com /technology/networks/2010/03/30/bt-fibre-broadband-third-wave-of-exchanges-named-39745658/2/
(you'll need to replace the stars and concatenate).
As you'll see, the towns listed are heavily weighted towards the south of the country with 200 exchanges in London. The East and West Midlands and the East of England (where I'm located) have around 50 exchanges on the list. Wales has 7 exchanges named, and Northern Ireland has 1.
My area is not listed. And I find this rather depressing. Why saturate areas that already have fast broadband, and options e.g. cable? This now means we're probable stuck with a 1.5MB maximum line for the next 5 years.
Anyone else as disappointed as I am, especially with the socio-economic repercussions?

penrhyn

BT is in business to make money for its shareholders, not lose it on uneconomic services, try and find a call box these days.
Its logical that they will concentrate their roll out in areas where there is maximum take up.

suki1964

samuki wrote: »

Opinions please on the whole "race to infinity" - a competition to decide which 5 (that's right, only FIVE!) areas will be added to the roll out plans for faster broadband speeds. The list of the 300 towns to soon have fibre broadband can be found here: h**p:// www .silicon.com /technology/networks/2010/03/30/bt-fibre-broadband-third-wave-of-exchanges-named-39745658/2/
(you'll need to replace the stars and concatenate).
As you'll see, the towns listed are heavily weighted towards the south of the country with 200 exchanges in London. The East and West Midlands and the East of England (where I'm located) have around 50 exchanges on the list. Wales has 7 exchanges named, and Northern Ireland has 1.
My area is not listed. And I find this rather depressing. Why saturate areas that already have fast broadband, and options e.g. cable? This now means we're probable stuck with a 1.5MB maximum line for the next 5 years.
Anyone else as disappointed as I am, especially with the socio-economic repercussions?

Oh to even get 1.5mb

Think about those of us in rural areas who are lucky to get 512kbps on BB

Id like BT to spend their money on upgrading our lines rather then give others fibre optic - but thats not happening either

hippey

I do wonder how accurate the website is. According to the postcode checker (I don't have a BT line to check) my area is not covered by infinity, however the Openreach engineers have been working in our area for months connecting the fibre so I called BT up. At first it was a no, then after a little bit of time and the sales guy making enquiries he came back and said I can get the 100Mb service as FTTP!

Yet the website says I can't get any! But I now have my fit date in January and have the confirmation email. I know there are other areas like mine which appear not to have fibre but actually do!

What was more surprising is when the sales agent said he'd never seen 100Mb service!

kwikbreaks

suki1964 wrote: »

Id like BT to spend their money on upgrading our lines rather then give others fibre optic - but thats not happening either.

Even with perfect copper wires the speed will still drop off with distance. Fibre is the only currently available technology which will help and no business is going to invest in something if they can't get a return (or taxpayer handout) on that investment. Maybe WiMax could work too in the future.

patman99

You will get 100m/b up to 300m from the cabinet, however, you have been mislead. BT are capping speeds at 40M/b.

hippey

patman99 wrote: »

You will get 100m/b up to 300m from the cabinet, however, you have been mislead. BT are capping speeds at 40M/b.

No, I have not been misled. We are in the trial area (Bradwell Abbey) for Fibre to the premises, therefore the speed is correct at 100mb (at best)