What you see (elsewhere) is not what you get (in Argyll and from BT).
This is about the right description for the recently trumpeted broadband upgrades which BT has been commissioned by the Scottish Government to provide for a range of rural areas across Scotland, including Argyll.
Drilling down into the reality we have discovered that the bandwidths which will apply after the upgrades are in place are:
The exchanges at the following places in Argyll will have full ADSL, offering up to 8 Mpbs (dependent on distance from the exchange):
- Coll
- Colonsay
- Gigha
- Jura
- Pirnmill
The exchanges in the other Argyll areas to be upgraded will have a very different experience – one no better than the old dial-up speeds. The statement is that they: ‘are being upgraded through increased capacity – which means the bandwidth available will be 512 kbps’. The unfortunates are:
- Kilchattan Bay
- Kilfinan
- Machrie
- Pennyghael
- Sliddery
- Whitehouse
512kbps? What business could manage on 512kbps today? What child’s education could take sufficient advantage of the resources of the Internet on 512kbps?
This simply provides the impetus for rural depopulation. We are aware of Argyll properties for sale that have had offers withdrawn because broadand services in the area were inadequate to the needs of businesses and growing children.
And there’s the question of Islay.
Well, hey, it’s Christmas. Isn’t Argyll lucky to get an orange in its sock.
See our original story on the announcement of the upgrades and see comments at the foot of that story – particularly in respect of what BT have been doing at Kifinan in Cowal – and this is upgrading.
512kbps? Yes, it’s rubbish, but it’s more than ten times less rubbish than actual dial-up, which I still have the misfortune to use on occasion.
Another thing to note is latency: that’s the time that servers on the internet take to respond to your requests. I’ve been experimenting with Google’s new DNS servers and found that they make things _much_ more responsive. I suspect that trick would work on the slow lines of deepest Argyll as well…
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For Stephen Mackenzie: Of course you’re right, Stephen.
We’re committed to refusing to be grateful for amelioration and insisting on the developmental drivers.
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Correctly.
It is of course crazy that decent broadband, like electricity, isn’t available pretty much everywhere by now.
Just be careful with them facts.
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Stephen, thanks for the tip on Google DNS — looks very interesting indeed.
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It’s bad news that broadband speeds are so limited, at least it’s now generally possible to compare broadband with broadband packages, unlike the past where it was alot less competitive
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If access to broadband beyond what BT are willing to offer is of such vital importance to rural communities then it is their responsibility to provide the driving force behind upgrades. Sitting back and bemoaning the lethargy of the incumbent telco (who ultimately have shareholders to answer to) will achieve nothing.
There are a number of rural communities which have already blazed this trail and taken matters into their own hands. There is no reason why communities in Argyll can’t follow this example and help themselves rather than waiting for someone else to help them.
Also to claim that lack of access to broadband services “provides the impetus for rural depopulation” is fanciful. A closer look at the price of housing compared to average earnings of a household would indicate that this plays a major part in the sustainability of rural communities.
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