Another issue, another article.
Must be about time to see what BT have been up to……….
Well, BT has been busy since last issue!
Nope, they haven’t upgraded any more exchanges to ADSL status……….come on, you
didn’t really expect them to, did you?
I mean, although they have boasted about enabling over 1100 exchanges, didn’t
you question how many they have enabled this year?
If I recall correctly, they were boasting of over a thousand last year……….doesn’t
take a mathematician to work out that their progress has ever so slightly fallen………
They have announced more initiatives, however.
Initiatives, nice word for not bringing Britain’s
exchanges up to the same standard uniformly.
Let’s remember that BT was the British owned telephone network that was sold
off to private investors ……….
Let’s also remember that BT had a telephone network that was the envy of the
World, and that everyone on a BT exchange could access the range of services
available………
How times have changed………
Now, all you need to do to be able to get the full range of BT services is
to stay next door to one of their bigger exchanges………or have cable installed
in the area you live in to get your exchange ADSL enabled.
Don’t believe me, lets have a quick look at the surrounding
area I live in.
Troon got their exchange upgraded. Amazingly enough , this happened after the cable company decided to install
in their area. The fact that Troon has the same population density as other
towns in the area that can’t get their exchanges upgraded is a coincidence,
nothing more……….
In fact, Irvine next door to them
can’t get their exchange upgraded………..its only bigger
than Troon……go figure. Well, of course, Irvine
has had cable for a number of years, so they wouldn’t have dropped their existing
system for an ADSL enabled exchange.
Lets not lay all the blame on BT for Britain
having one of the worst uptakes of broadband in the World. The other major Telco’s
in Britain should
shoulder their share of the blame.
When BT was privatised, OFTEL was there to ensure that competition was strong
enough to survive. This has been the major failing all along. Competition has
not thrived. If it had, BT would have been forced to offer its services to everyone,
not just a favoured few.
There have been scare stories around for years that BT has blocked or put obstacles
in everyone’s way to prevent them losing their monopoly. OFTEL has, for the
most part, pooh poohed these stories. OFTEL has also recently came
to the conclusion that BT’s network should not be taken off them and that they
shouldn’t be forced to offer the same services to everyone.
However, I digress.
BT is very slowly getting their broadband tracker to work , it actually shows people have registered now!!!
In fact, I noticed that over 32000 people have registered to try and get broadband.
It’s a shocker that there are over 32000 folk that can’t get broadband, and
that BT have only just discovered it!!
The new BT initiatives are a Broadband bandwagon to help educate everyone that
broadband is a good thing. Actually making it available would be a better step
in the right direction, I feel.
They are also trialling a wireless set-up in Wales.
This isn’t a true broadband service at the moment , but could be if the trial is successful. Answers on
a postcard if you know what results they are expecting.
They have also announced that they will be starting a trial whereby they
don’t connect via fibre to their network backbone. This will cut the cost
dramatically of upgrading exchanges and means that they could enable any exchange
with as few as 16 users of the broadband service. Since they have said already
that they would only use one ISP for this and the ISP would cough up money
to help provide this, call me cynical, but I expect Btopenworld to suddenly
be able to put up money to help provide this , if
this trial is a success. This, of course, would mean that Btopenworld would
have a monopoly on any of these exchanges if the folk wanted broadband………..
As I said before, it means that they say they could upgrade exchanges for as
few as 16 people……..but don’t hold your breath.
I had a quick phone call to their broadband service about this development,
but they hadn’t heard of it. They seemed genuinely astonished when I told them
it was on the BT website……
As for how well this new set-up will work, I’ve no idea. In the exchange area
I live in, BT states that there isn’t enough traffic to warrant upgrading. Every
night, regardless of which ISP I use, I can’t hold a connection between 8-9
p.m.. Now, how much better would the service be if
they did enable our exchange without installing any more resources…………..
The government is also going to do its part to help get broadband for everyone
by trying to leverage upgrades using their financial muscle such as schools,
libraries etc
So, broadband may be around the corner for everyone. Believe it if you like.
Another few items that caught my eye were the stories in the Register that
BT had sent a warning letter to an Irish broadband user stating that they thought
he was using a P2P system and that this would be in breach of their terms…………..
Again, BT has also stated that with their “no frills” broadband, you were limited
to 1 gig downloads per day, again this was spotted
on the Register newspage.
BT has still not finished its satellite trial……..this is the one that costs
apprx. £400 to install, runs at half the speed of ADSL
and doesn’t upload……….
Right, I’ve vented my spleen yet again.
As you can see from the above, things are moving at snail’s pace to actually
get the broadband available countrywide. BT has put initiatives forward to try
and drive the broadband market. I do, however, feel, that most people will not register for broadband until
it is available in their area and they can see what the cost will be.
Anything else would be like signing a blank cheque, and the vast majority will
not do that. If BT actually wants (as it says) to create a Broadband Britain,
it will need to convince people that it will provide broadband at a uniform
price if they register, and that this figure is eminently achievable. Some of
the recent figures given for exchanges before they will be considered for upgrading
are at the 750 mark. In a population of two thousand for some of these, is it any wonder
that folk won’t register?
Some folk have insisted that BT is doing this simply to stall upgrading exchanges.
I sincerely hope that this isn’t the case, I can’t believe that they would be this cynical.
However, their efforts so far, have been woeful and I also see that their service
has been slated as well for speed. The last results I saw, were that they 9th in the top 10 providers
for speed!!! This, in itself , is a shocking indictment
for Britain’s largest Telco.
My wish list ( apart from getting my local exchange upgrade) is that all
the telecomm providers in Britain actually do something about upgrading. There
are loads of Telco’s and so far, very few, apart from BT, have upgraded an exchange!!!!
I believe that BT should enable all exchanges, but a little help from the others
wouldn’t go amiss.
Anyway, I’m off now to investigate a satellite broadband system that they were
talking about on the ADSLguide website. Seems it isn’t all that expensive and
although only one way, can be installed by anyone with a reasonable amount of
effort and the (Italian ) company providing the service only charges about £22
a month………..
You never know, maybe in a couple of issues time, I might just be writing about
that……………..
Ciou!!!
