Deirdre Henderson, a Community Development Worker from Kintyre, has launched a petition to address the unfair situation where people can receive as little as 0.6mbps broadband speeds whilst paying a minimum tariff that claims to be able to reach 16mbps. That is less than 4% of the speed as someone receiving the potential higher speed for the same cost.
The other aspect of the petition is to bring some fairness into access to reasonable broadband where the current system has disadvantaged remote and rural communities within the UK.
The petition – linked here – is entitled ‘The Legal Right to 2Mbps Fairly Priced, Minimum Broadband Speed in the UK‘.
Deirdre Henderson says: ‘I live on the Mull of Kintyre, a remote and rural community, where, unlike the rest of the UK, depopulation is a serious problem.
Our rural communities don’t have the big employers but rely on land based jobs, small businesses and tourism.
These areas provide much of the food that is eaten in the UK. They can be great places to live and work but
they are increasingly being disadvantaged by the digital divide in access to quality broadband.
‘The UN recognises the importance of universal access to broadband to support human rights. Finland passed a law in 2010 to make it a legal right to have access to 1Mbps, with a commitment to improve that to 100Mbps by 2015.
‘It is widely recognised that quality broadband is essential for commerce, healthy living, social interaction, education, and human rights. The current poor broadband standard affects businesses and restricts the opportunities people have to take part in distance learning. Modern technology is moving so fast that the ability to have a quality broadband signal will play an even greater role in everyday living.
‘This petition asks that anyone in the UK should have a legal right to a minimum of 2Mbps broadband speed, with a commitment to 50Mbps minimum by 2015 for all.
’8mbps is the average speed in the UK for broadband.
‘Furthermore, providers should not be able to charge customers full price for receiving a lesser service than the maximum advertised, with a sliding payment scale introduced to reflect a lesser service when it occurs. e.g. if a customer receives 2Mbps and can only connect on a minimum package of 16Mbps then the customer should only pay one eighth of the monthly fee. ‘
Deirdre Henderson concludes: ‘I hope that people will see the importance of ensuring that there is a legal protection for everyone in the UK to receive decent broadband speeds at a fair price just as we do with phone lines and electricity.
‘It doesn’t seem much to ask in this day and age and I hope people will support the petition whether they live in towns, cities or remote communities’.
The campaign can also be followed at a new Facebook page here. It seems eminently worth signing: ‘The Legal Right to 2Mbps Fairly Priced, Minimum Broadband Speed in the UK‘.
Note: It takes 100,000 signatures on a parliamentary petition to create the opportunity for a debate in the House of Commons.
.6 of a meg wow thats fast round here try less than .2 regularly Please something needs to be done rural communities rely on a good connection. Those who live in the remote areas of the country have more need than those who live in cities.
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Well done Deirdre, I’ll be signing up.
I’ve contacted BT (Openreach) on many occasions to try to get a faster connection (we’re on the Isle of Mull) but no luck as yet.
I’ve even suggested to them that I pay for the speed I’m actually receiving – they didn’t want to take me up on that one!
I’d encourage everyone to sign this petition, maybe when the service providers see the sheer numbers of unhappy customers, they’ll actually do something about it.
In addition, I’ve also contacted my local MSP, Mike Russell (and copied in Alan Reid MP) to take up my case – Mr Russell’s reply from BT was that basically the numbers/potential customers didn’t warrant the investment. They did say that it will happen eventually, but would not give a definitive date!
Hopefully this petition will speed up that process for all broadband customers in rural areas.
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a commitment to 50Mbps minimum by 2015 for all
This is surely a fantasy. No-one is going to pay to lay fibre optic cable to (eg) all the houses in Bunessan, even if a main fibre optic cable reaches the local exchange.
6Mb is enough to watch high quality streaming TV or movies so why on earth would any normal household need nearly ten times that bandwidth?
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Why on earth have I been given 4 ‘thumbs down’ for this comment?
What idiot seriously believes that it is economically feasible or in any way necessary to provide broadband in remote rural areas that is ten times faster than necessary for any normal purpose?
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Four thumbs because they are idiots. Aros on Mull got one of the first digital exchanges in this area way back served by overhead fibre from Craignure because somebody who’s name I forget ( maybe Walker) had a family connection with Vallance, urged the project., Whole thing was goosed when a 180 ton rock fell on the connection between two mainland xmm/rxm stations one new year. As a previous poster mentioned ask the rest of the B/Band provide posse to give you service;; they can’t!!
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Presumably, as usual, they will want BT to provide them with the service whilst the other big names cherry-pick theasy profitable areas.
They can get satellite of course, there was a report in the Oban Times recently of a company doing demonstrations in Glencoe.
I can’t see why everyone has a right to fast broadband. There are a lot of things I would like to have access to, do I have a right to get other taxpayers to provide me with local access to them. I would like to be to do research in places like TNA, NLS, RCAHMS. Do I have a right to have a branch in my local town with full access to all the records?
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I think the point is that broadband is fast becoming as essential as electricity for participating in modern society, and as the typical bandwidth increases, so does the minimum necessary. At the moment a 1 mBit is just about adequate for most purposes. As websites become more complex that minimum threshold will increase. Maybe not by 2015 but certainly by 2020 it will be necessary to have speeds substantially higher than they are now. I wonder, though, whether 4G mobile broadband may be a more cost effective solution in some areas.
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2 Mbps is not asking for much! Kudos to you for advocating for better broadband in your community.
I’m not sure what the barrier has been there thus far but usually it’s environmental obstacles (terrain or foliage that inhibits wireless signals between towers)combined with low teledensity (fewer people per square kilometer), which adds up to the need for a lot of infrastructure that large telcos just won’t invest in.
There’s a new technology that service providers are just beginning to use, reusing TV signal for broadband (TV “white space” technology). UHF doesn’t require this line of sight so it offers better coverage. It’s an affordable alternative for rural communities. I hope a provider near you is looking into it for the near future.
Meanwhile, all the best with your project. Broadband will bring many new opportunities and make a great difference in people’s lives.
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Re-using TV won’t work – many places here in Argyll can’t get terrestrial TV (or indeed FM radio).
Also the monthly “fair use” allowances need to be generous. The Avanti satellite system (all that we can have) soon runs out of puff with more than one person in a house using broadband.
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Some very interesting comments and opinions. I think it is important to understand that having 0.5 / 0.6mbps already affects the businesses that my husband I run from home, our ability to load webpages and stream Skype and video. As the internet and TV services converge it is likely that more video and TV will be streamed for business, leisure and educational opportunities. As broadband quality improves in cities the data on webpages will become even denser.
The same argument that says that people in rural areas shouldn’t expect the same quality of basic broadband is akin, I feel, to people deciding that a national postal service should not provide post to your door, or should only be delivered once a week.
Having compiled a community profile on Govt statistics in my area I know that my area is accelerating its depopulation and, in my opinion,that will increase further the more the community is left behind digitally. Depopulation is not the norm in Scotland or the UK where populations are increasing.
In these tough economic times it is even more essential for rural areas to get a level playing field with broadband with 20% of my community being self employed (3 times the national average). In addition, tourism plays such an important part of our communities. Without decent broadband these tourism businesses will lose out to areas where people can check their emails and post photos whilst on holiday.
I believe that the only way to protect rural economies is legally as, has been said, no commercial company is going to upgrade these lines or provide affordable satellite unless compelled to. I hope that people will support the campaign and sign the petition.
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