Broadband and mobile coverage in "hard-to-reach" places

John_Gray

I work for a charity near the centre of Stroud, Gloucestershire, [GL5 2..] - hardly rural!

There is no Virgin Media cable available in the town. The local BT exchange is fibre-enabled, but the local BT green cabinet is not. Consequently we have about 25 staff and PCs sharing about 4 Mbps download speed for each of our two lines. We had to add the second line at the beginning of the year, just to get the work done at a semi-reasonable speed. Trying to get any information out of BT about when, or even if, the cabinet will be enabled is virtually impossible - just like the bad old days of telephone line rationing.

At home in Gloucester, I have 54 Mbps download from Virgin Media, and could have 152 Mbps - if I paid a bit more.

Annie_Clitheroe

I regularly when travelling have no phone signal in rural areas. My provider is O2.
Could the government put pressure on providers to share phone masts to overcome thes discrepancies? After all we don't want or need our countryside spoiling with more masts

Jim02

It's a shame that the MSE header article isn't clearer. This isn't about 'Broadband and mobile coverage in "hard-to-reach" places,' it's about broadband coverage in hard-to-reach places, with mobile phone signal a potential solution. But you have to go to the Commons Select Committee's link to discover this.

My wired broadband is excellent at 76Mb/s, but my mobile phone signal at home is dreadful. I don't need a broadband solution, but I would like to be able to answer my mobile when it rings, without having to stand in the corner of the bedroom with my head at a funny angle.

But unfortunately my crappy mobile signal is not what they're concerned about.

andyca

Annie_Clitheroe wrote: »

I regularly when travelling have no phone signal in rural areas. My provider is O2.
Could the government put pressure on providers to share phone masts to overcome thes discrepancies? After all we don't want or need our countryside spoiling with more masts

This is exactly what I was going to say! I shouldn't have to gamble that my mobile network will be good enough for all the places I might be in the next 12-24 months.


Competition in mobile coverage is not working. The network should be centralized and a push for 100% 4G coverage is required for UK businesses to succeed.

Donnamac

We have the same issues as others. A new build estate with no fiber enabled and no virgin media cables. We get 2 mb if we are lucky. Bt won't upgrade and neither will council so we are stuck. Estate is only a year old and still in the hands of the developer (linden) but they won't do anything either. seem like we are stuck!!?

PlanetEarth

Most of the village is affected by poor mobile signals at some time or the other. 3, EE, Vodafone, Virgin it makes no difference and yes they all piggy back on EE masts. For the last month a lot of us have been lucky to get a signal and can only make emergency calls. Why should rural customers be 2nd class citizens we pay the same amount for our mobile plans so it does not seem fair. People often phone their mobile provider to be told there is no problem and it must be their phone. Something should be done about it!
The internet has been improved slightly recently and some of the luckier ones in the village are up to 17 download speeds and around 1 a lot are getting far less than this.

Bex_123

My parents and brother run a small family farm in Cornwall. Most of the peninsula they live on is a mobile "not spot": someitimes I get a French mobile company signal! The land is hilly, with many dips being under any mobile signal. We have lost count of the number of times we are asked if my brother has a mobile: he doesn't. It wouldn't work on most of the farm. If the landline has a problem, they are about a mile from their nearest neighbour with a telephone. My elderly Dad has had cancer and open heart surgery, and has been taken to hospital once by air ambulance. Farming is a dangerous industry with many hazards in normal work. One of my school friends was killed recently in an accident while driving a tractor.

Running a business makes having a computer and broadband essential. HMRC, DEFRA, RPA and lots of other regulatory bodies require submission of information online. Add to that the number of patches issued by Microsoft and regular virus file updates, and you need fast broadband. The farm is at the end of the area covered by the exchange. We cannot upgrade to fibre broadband as it is too far from the exchange.

Broadband is painfully slow. Sometimes it takes over an hour to download essential updates to software before they start going online. I dread the download of Windows 10! Running a business needs fast access to information, broadband is needed to be fast and reliable, especially given the volatile nature of world prices and the increased electronic business world.

However, there will be other obstacles with a satellite solution. Namely the farmhouse is Grade 2 listed so the powers that be wouldn't like a dish on the house! And the other problem will be thick Cornish granite walls!

Ps. What is cable television?

David_Cole

I'm with BT and am just over 6km from an exchange in West Sussex (near Petworth) - I get 1mb download and 126kb upload speed - with regular breaks but pay the same as a friend in the town who gets over 30mb - FOR EXACTLY THE SAME CHARGE TO BT - this has been the situation for just over five years - there are few other 'services' that can charge the same amount for wildly different services - and yes I am trying to run a business....

moneymel

I live in Dartford which is, according to the various signal strength maps, in a good area for mobile signal for all mobile networks. However, inside my house, I can only get O2 and Vodaphone signal. But not in the kitchen - you can't take a phone call while cooking. And don't even think about looking at the bookcase in the lounge while chatting on the phone - no signal there either!
For all the others - you can get a max of 1 bar for the if at all but this will cut out if you try to make a call.

I think mobile providers should allow you to cancel a contract if you can prove that the service is unreliable/ non-existent. Or else they should be made to provide signal boosters or another reasonable method of providing the service that we are paying for at no extra cost to the customer.

Missiemups

I live in Chulmleigh, in the middle of Devon. When I said to Sky about our slow broadband and getting Fibre Optic he said we were still on the original internet system within the exchange we hadn't even progressed to the updated internet system which preceeded Fibre Optic so unless they jump us straight to Fibre Optic (which I doubt as we're not in an area where the MP's have holiday homes!!) then we have a long wait. It's so frustrating. We only get 2g or nothing on our mobiles too, it mostly buffers for ages then drops off. I'm on 02 and unless I'm in a WIFI zone or in town (Barnstaple/Exeter etc..) then I can't get on the internet at all.