Superfast Broadband
Would you like superfast Broadband? From BT?
One of our friends works very close to the top of BT and has told us about "Race to Infinity", which allows you to vote for the areas to be upgraded.
I don't yet know how it will be assessed and rolled out, but I have no doubt the readers will keep us informed about the process. The top 5 exchanges will win the race....
Vote early. Vote often. From every PC you can access.
One of our friends works very close to the top of BT and has told us about "Race to Infinity", which allows you to vote for the areas to be upgraded.
I don't yet know how it will be assessed and rolled out, but I have no doubt the readers will keep us informed about the process. The top 5 exchanges will win the race....
Vote early. Vote often. From every PC you can access.
Update: Voting page reads "Stornoway, Western Isles has a current score of 0.05%" which implies something about percentage involvement rather than absolute votes.
Further update: It looks like only Stornoway is eligible, having more than 1,000 premises. Sorry, but how about some Hebridean solidarity, and then we promise to work to get it rolled out throughout the rest of the islands.
Further update: It looks like only Stornoway is eligible, having more than 1,000 premises. Sorry, but how about some Hebridean solidarity, and then we promise to work to get it rolled out throughout the rest of the islands.
34 comments:
Done. Any Nicolson teachers out there who can bring it to the attention of pupils ?
Can't see how we can win this as the small exchanges don't have enough properties to qualify for the 1000 needed. We need the MP's to campaign for us to be amalgamated.
Nice sentiments but how do you plan on getting this rolled out to the rest of the islands?
This is direct from BT's mouth - "...our ambition to bring super-fast broadband to two thirds of the UK by 2015."
Somehow I can't see the Western Isles being part of the "two thirds", can you?
Good luck with the vote.
Stornoway would be a start at least.
Voted twice today - once for business, once for residential. Stornoway now has a grand total of 17 votes. Target is around 4,400. A sure sign we don't want it.
12:17pm, we do want it but realise that we do not have a snowballs chance in hell of getting it as usual.
12.17
The votes are lagging - although not that much. Get the Nicolson staff and students on board. That will help.
3.52PM
Oh well, let's give up then.
Just one question.
What has Stornoway done to help Barvas, Sollas and Northbay get broadband?
And now you want superfast broadband?
10.35
As noted before, only Stornoway is currently eligible for this. So I'm afraid it's the only game in town.
Bear in mind though that having a SF Broadband presence in the islands might provide a platform (even if only a PR one) for extending it at a later date. Particularly if some tangible benefits can be cited from experience.
Now is not the time to be parochial.
10:35 PM You fib! Any moment now, Donn...Mad Hatter Eddie will come on here and point out that you are wildly exaggerating, and the Outer Hebrides are an internet land of milk and honey, with 100 Gb speed for even the smallest croft shed across the archipelago...
Barvas has broadband....
It would be worth it just to see BT's collective faces if they had to kit out Stornoway.
What I find really interesting is how they would expect to do it without laying a cable across the Minch. At the moment everything, be it ADSL or ConnComm goes out over a microwave link, which gets degraded when the weather is bad causing all the internet users on the island to experience slowdowns.
Given that Infinity relies on Fibreoptic links I don't see it happening without some major wonga from Government, which equally isn't likely to happen.
Oh and for the Anonymous Coward@9.27am
I've made it completely clear that I am not affiliated in any way, other than being a customer of, Connected Communities/Hebrides.Net/Scotnet etc. You can check with Angus.
I would appreciate if any more of these lame ad-hom attacks were simply deleted by the admins as I am getting weary of people hiding behind anonymity as an excuse to tell flat out lies.
BT are not interested in rural communities and have adopted the stroppy supermodel attitude of not getting out of bed to upgrade an exchange unless they are given millions of pounds.
The Scottish Government are not interested in this area either because of all the money that's been chucked into the ConCom black hole...
MadEddieH, thought this may be of interest to you.
The Wikipedia definition of ellipses (the dots after the words Barvas has broadband)-
"When placed at the end of a sentence, the ellipsis can also inspire a feeling of melancholy longing."
MadEddieH said...
Barvas has broadband....
10:06 AM
Yes it does but not properly ADSL broadband that most of the island can take advantage off with faster speeds & cheaper prices & more importantly more reliable.
They have to make do with heb.net if it wasnt for the council & health board having to use heb.net the project would cease to exist.
Actually the council would probably pump loads of money into it to keep it going even if it was losing thousands of pounds a year. (which it probably is anyway)
Can Madeddiehatter explain why only Concom is restricted by the so called microwave link to the mainland?
Most broadband users who have ADSL have decent speeds(certainly compared to concom) and a reliable service..........at a much lower price--------they must use the same microwave link too.
Why does this particular coward hide behind his nom de plume?Madeddiehatter??
To the latest Anonymous Coward@8.17am
I've already stated clearly who I am in comments on previous posts - have you ever done the same?
As to your latest flat out lie regarding ADSL - Anyone who has ADSL broadband will also suffer degradation in speed during bad weather.
Most ADSL users who are more than a few hundred metres away from their exchange will tend to have similar or poorer speeds than ConnComm - especially in rural areas where the phone lines take some interesting routes.
I have stated over and over again that I think ConnComm is overpriced and that it has poor customer service but that is no excuse for telling lies about what ADSL is capable of.
As for reliability, the simple fact of the matter is that ConnComm is just as reliable as ADSL - regardless of how much you wish it wasn't so.
8.12
Indeed - so wouldn't it be a wonderful petard to hoist them with? Watching them wriggle to get out of it would provide entertainment for months.
For the sake of 5 seconds to vote on everyone's part.
MadEddieH if ConCom is so "reliable", why has the HebNet page got a long statement apologising for the "degradation of web browsing performance" at peak times"?
Why does "bad weather" ! affect ADSL??
Not my ADSL nor anyone i know,copper wires in good condition carry good connections.
Now when you have masts all over the hills,that is different,that is Concom
Just for your information madEddieH, the cable run from exchange to my home is 1.28km. I subscribe for up to 8Mb service and vary from between 4.4 to 7.2 Mbit (recorded over 12 months). Weather is not a factor in the speed, contention is.
As an aside I have to use concom at work. Considering that we are supposed to have 1Mb service the dropout and speed is, on average appalling. At home I run multiple computers on multiple formats and with an average evening speed of 6.4Mb running six machines all downloading the speeds per machine are still greater than what we get at work.
It does not matter how you dress up a sows ear, it is still a sows ear!
Apologist with an unhealthy, stalkerish obsession with everyones identity says:
...the simple fact of the matter is that ConnComm is just as reliable as ADSL.
Hahahahahahahaha...
MadEddieH my sister's house is 5.1Km from the exchange and getting speeds of 3Meg, not a "flat out lie" but a fact. The only time the weather has affected the service is when there's a power failure due to severe gales.
I know a telecoms company who are unbundling exchanges at costs that should make ConCom and all it's crony apologists blush with shame at all the money they've wasted.
The undeniable fact is that ConCom has set broadband in the Western Isles back years, our ex-MP's words, not mine.
And you know why there is poor customer service? Its because the HebNet staff are sick of dealing with all the complaints about the ConCom service!
8,11am I believe you are absolutely right- concom is losing large amounts of money and is having to be supported by CnES, WIHB & HIE. Ironical, isn't it, that these organisations will continue to support an organisation which is manifestly retrograde to the islands' competitiveness.
There seems to be a more fundamental problem with internet speed on the islands which is perhaps clouding the issue. Recently, my copper cable internet connection was so slow I decided to check its speed and discovered it was running as slow as 78Kb at weekends and is now only about 300k when I'm supposed to be getting 8Mb max. The isp provider checked as far as the BT exchange who says that section is ok but I will have to pay BT to test the local connection since there's no means of testing as far as my house which is about a mile from the exchange. Has anyone else experienced speed problems?
9.15am, i dont suppose your broadband connection is with either talktalk, tiscali or AOL? they are all under the talktalk umbrella & loads of people have had alot of speed issues over the last few weeks but they seem to be sorted now. It is probably made your connection as slow as heb.net as peak times!!
3.29
Interesting. I have copper broadband. 6.7 to 7.2 every day. And I don't subscribe to any of those you mentioned.
Following a recent meeting (HIE & council reps.) we're told that the Barvas exchange will not be upgraded for at least another 4 years. Also 300-400k has been given as an estimated cost of upgrade. However, BT have informed me that they don't know where this information has come from and tell a different story in a recent email they sent me. -
Dear Mr Macdonald
Thank you for your enquiry about upgrading Barvas exchange. Unfortunately BT is not in a position to provide quotes to individual communities for upgrades to the network or exchanges in a specific area. As you will appreciate literally hundreds of these requests are being received and the cost of carrying out the necessary survey work to provide quotations would in itself be very high. Even if a community had public funding available it would still, in order to comply with EU rules, have to go out for the work in a technology and supplier neutral way.
The cost of upgrading exchanges or sections of the network in a piecemeal fashion would be extremely high and it therefore makes sense for Government and its agencies to aggregate various locations together. As you may be aware the Scottish Government have submitted a bid for Highlands and Islands Enterprise to be one of the pilot areas covered under the UK Government’s Broadband Delivery UK project. An announcement on which areas of the UK have been successful in the bid to be one of the pilot areas is expected within the next few weeks. If the Scottish bid is successful then Highlands and Islands Enterprise will commence work on planning to improve the broadband infrastructure in the Highlands and Islands – although I cannot say which areas will benefit.
You may wish to approach HIE about investment in the broadband infrastructure in your area.
-
I have also received a reply from our MSP on the Barvas broadband issue. This didn't help much as the he wrote about the Carloway exchange (well it’s all the westsuide cove) poor show.
There is no point talking to the council or HIE. They have decided to back Con-Com to the bitter end and ensure we pay for a pathetic service or use dial-up. So we can't have real broadband, but we can have as many wind turbines as we can suffer.
Finally, a BT rep. phoned me today (how often does that happen). I couldn't get any further info from him regarding an upgrade. He will be in Stornoway on Monday for a meeting with HIE and Con-Com, all in it together. The whole thing stinks and all those involved should be put on trial.
"Also 300-400k has been given as an estimated cost of upgrade"
10:53 PM, BT are a profit-driven organisation, so if they can't financially gain due to insufficient customers, they will by putting in extortionate quotes to provide the service.
They are ripping us off and we shouldn't be held to ransom by them because there are cheaper alternatives, trust me.
Northbay battles on for BT broadband. BT is ripping me off. I now use pay as you go dial up.
stornoway is currently in position 610 for the race to infinity. Maybe next time.
http://racetoinfinityandbeyond.veadas.net/league?filter=all
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