BT persuaded to squeeze out a bit more bandwidth for some Argyll exchanges
published this on 9:10 pm, Tuesday, 8th December, 2009Broadband| Business| Community News| Tourism activities | Comments (rss) | Respond | Ping |
The Scottish Government is paying BT to upgrade the following exchanges which are so choked they are effectively closed to new broadband subscribers.
The areas in question are:
- Coll
- Colonsay
- Gigha
- Jura
- Kilchattan Bay
- Kilfinan
- Pennyghael
- Whitehouse
Any improvement will be welcome in these places, particularly by new subscribers who have been unable to access online services.Welcoming the project, Enterprise Minister Jim Mather said: ‘I fully recognise the frustration felt in some rural communities where people are unable to obtain a satisfactory broadband service.
‘With broadband an increasingly vital tool for businesses and households, we have acted with BT to identify a way forward. Upgrading these telephone exchanges will enable even more people to benefit from a broadband service which people in most areas of Scotland already enjoy’
But there are questions to be asked:
- How many more subscribers than now will each of these exchanges support?
- What bandwidth will subscribers at the upgraded exchanges get?
- How long is this upgrade expected to be able to cope with rising subscriber demand?
- How long is the now available bandwidth expected to be able to keep pace with advancing technology?
- How much is BT being paid for what is, inevitably, still a bottom dollar solution?
And the big question – when these exchanges were initially enabled to supply broadband, why were they enabled so minimally as to require a further upgrade now?
This question is necessitated by BT’s modus operandi – do as little as possible as often as possible, earning as much as possible – and always leaving room for more. The sharpest shooters want no truck with future proofing.
The Argyll upgrades are part of a Scotland-wide series of similar fixes including exchanges in Ayrshire, the Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, Forth Valley, the Highlands and Islands, Lanarkshire, Lothian, Moray, Orkney, Shetland, and Tayside. All ot these operating at or approaching full capacity for broadband provision.
The Scottish Government is doing its best but BT should not be encouraged to look forward to an automatic long term partnership unless it earns that right.
The serious difference to Scotland and the real competitive advantage driving enterprise will come from the harvesting of available resources for a nationwide fibreoptic infrastructure rather than spent on serial trickle-feed upgrades.
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December 9th, 2009 at 9:49 am
Having done it, they can’t keep it up. I used to get 8.0 to 8.1 whatevers, which I’m told was quite good. BT vans have been trundling past none stop for months now. Result? My connection’s now 7.3 to 7.8 whatevers. Doesn’t seem much of a drop, but it means watching BBC iPlayer is no longer an option (it wasn’t good to start with).
You’re right. Without spending money on new infrastructure – money that isn’t there thanks to the parsimonious Mr. Brown’s decade or so of mismanagement of the British economy – we’ll always be the ones left behind.
December 9th, 2009 at 11:33 am
Tony,
You would add force to your argument if you were to indicate where you are living.
Many people I know would give their eye teeth for 7.3 to 7.8
December 10th, 2009 at 11:36 am
The reality is that BT are in such a mess with their inefficiencies they really have no idea who is doing what. I live in Otter Ferry (Kilfinan exchange) and we see 2 plus vans a day for probably about 50 lines in the whole area. They lay aluminium lines which will not last 5 minutes by the sea. BT is just too big and badly managed to deliver a modern service. Contention ratios are misleading and generally lied about, we pay for a commercial ADSL which should be less contention, but it can’t possibly be at Kilfinan as we all share one bottleneck and at only 512k down and 256k up which I’d imagine reaches the Tighnabruaich bottleneck and result is dialup speeds during peak times. We need decent broadband in rural areas to survive the modern world, maybe this is another attempt to clear rural areas. There is no competition for BT in rural areas so no reason for them to change their ways. 7.3 not a chance more like 300 to 1
December 10th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Ardfern, Colin. I think the village made a lot of noise with BT when broadband (512k) was first installed. Seems, though, that most are much worse off, so I’ll keep my head down and not moan anymore.
December 11th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
[...] 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. Share and Enjoy: [...]