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Rural Answers
What Broadband?
Simon Hart, writing in the recent "Countryside Alliance" newsletter puts it very succinctly,
"Reports that 59% of rural people are now connected to broadband in comparison with 57% of their urban counterparts confirmed the rural digital revolution, but fails to examine the full story.
While broadband use within the British countryside has recently soared, the figure quoted fails to take connection speed into account. Most consumer broadband providers offer 2mbps or 8mbps, with those who cannot receive these connections required to pay the same price. Large parts of rural Britain are unable to receive faster connection speeds and as such, are stuck paying higher prices for lower service. BT's own research confirms that people who are living just three of four miles away from the local exchange will probably receive actual thoroughput speeds in kilobites that than megabites per second, while still paying exactly the same price as those who receive the same services but much faster.
There was also comment on the variety of services used over the internet, with rural people mostly making use of banking, shopping and entertainment sites. This comes as no surprise to those of us who have been campaigning long and hard to protect rural bank branches, the post office network and championing local food providers. What other options do those in rural communities have when banking services may be several miles away and only open during the working day? The closure of local services within rural communities have made the internet more vital than ever, and means that slow connectivity is even more of a problem than within some urban areas.
The digital revolution is readily welcomed in rural communities, and is a great step forwards for rural enterprise, but such unfairness in connection speeds must be addressed by broadband providers. Rural people deserve the same service provided in urban areas, and should not have to suffer simply because of their location."
I guess the pricing issue is out of our control but can we lobby our MPs and MSPs to persuade BT to begin their 21st Century Network roll out with the rural areas rather than the already priviledged urban ones?
Ian Jarvie
17-Jun-2008 @ 04:28AM
Brian McCrow
As Chair of the Cardrona Village Hall I organised along with David Mundell MP a meeting between the residents (we are a community of 350 households) and representatives of BT and Scottish Government. Basically BT said that it wasn't economically viable to provide faster and more reliable Broadband to Cardrona. We have only 2 people with speeds of 1Mb, the rest are 500Kb and less with many at 250Kb and less and a number with no connection at all. They poopooed any discussion on us not receiving a service for the monies we pay and said thet you get the speed you get and just pay for it. We are of course taking this higher within BT and the Scottish Government and via Westminster. As one resident said - BT have gone from public good to private greed.
We must sort out these issues of Rural communities via Ofcom and Westminster otherwise the communities and especially the children within them will be disadvantaged. The education system will be increasingly based on children completing assignments from home using the Internet and submitting homework via the Web.
We also want to reduce the amount of travelling by workers and they need fast access to the Internet with 8MB and beyond speeds.
For example, I did a piece of work last week for my company where the graphic work file was 50Mb. This took forever to send across my 1Mbps line.
Westmister must take the lead on investments to make us competitive in the Global market.
8-Jun-2008 @ 20:47PM
John Taylor
I agree absolutely. I am 1.5 miles from my exchange and can seldom get above 3 mbps. It is scandalous.
5-Jun-2008 @ 23:49PM
Maggi Kaye
I live in a rural village, 17 miles from the nearest small town and 30 miles from the nearest (for us) sizable town of Dumfries. I am 800m from my exchange yet cannot get any faster than 5Mbps.
Many people in this region not only cannot get broadband, they cannot even use dialup. This is because the connection only lasts at most a few minutes and then cuts off or the web sites time out before a web page has time to load. All of these victims are within the BT specified maximum range from their nearest exchange for broadband so distance cannot be used as an excuse by BT.
Internet banking, shopping and entertainment sites are out of the question for many in this region. School children are unable to look up information for homework or projects.
There is only one bank for our 4 local villages spread over 10 miles and this is only open 2 days per week. There is very little public transport so a car is a necessity here (another extra expense).
As there are very few jobs in this area, many people run their own businesses from home, but have major problems getting email, or updating their websites, frequently having to travel several miles to someone else's house to do so, or spending most of their time trying to download their email, if this is not possible.
They also have problems having a conversation because the line cuts out at random intervals. This problem has been reported to BT time and time again but BT refuse to do anything about it (in one statement they commented that they are only obliged to provide a telephone line but no internet). The main problem as I understand it is that the telephone cables are so old and damaged they cannot cope.
I wont even start on our 4 channels of terrestrial tv.
Mike Kaye
I've just come across this article on the BBC website which might be of interest:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7416471.stm
It's about testing your broadband speed.
2-Jun-2008 @ 23:37PM
kevin Arrowsmith
Fully agree, this led me to write the following to the Northern Times last year ;
Dear Sir,
I read with interest the comments regarding broadband availability and reliability in Durness in The Northern Times, 22nd February. I would like to voice my support for the comments offered by the Durness Community Council.
Some two decades after the deregulation of the telecoms marketplace and the later creation of a supposedly competitive marketplace for broadband services, it is disappointing to see that the the concept of customer choice does not extend to Durness and no doubt many other rural locations in the Highlands. This was all the more frustrating to us recently when shortly before loosing service for some three days due to a BT fault, BT called inquiring about the renewal of our broadband contract. Offering faster speeds than ever (!) and new services like BT Vision if we renew. In Durness ? I don’t think so. Video on demand requires somewhat more than 512K bandwidth and Freeview on which the BT Vision service is based is not available in Durness. Not to worry though, Durness residents will be relieved to learn that Freeview services are likely to be switched on in 2010. It is quite likely however that only a limited number of digital channels will be available.
In terms of the bandwidth availability, the usual arguments about distance from the exchange don’t apply in this case and the issue would seem to be the limited capacity of the ‘backhaul’ link from Durness to the BT network and the level of equipment in the Durness exchange, a feature of the so called ‘Exchange Activate’ project.
According to the Scottish Government’s ‘Broadband for Scotland’ website, at least five ISP’s are providing service in each ‘Exchange Activate’ area. So, who are they and where is this information available ? When contacted neither BT nor Openreach would provide me with this information and so it would appear to me that in practice, BT have a virtual monopoly in this area. A lack of ISP’s would indicate that in the current broadband ‘regime’ it is uneconomic for ISP’s to consider providing a service in rural areas and this is surely clear evidence of ‘market failure.’
I am sensitive to the fact that many residents of the Highlands do not have any form of broadband service available at all and I hope that the Governments ‘Broadband Reach’ project goes some way to addressing this. Some might argue that we ought to be thankful for the assisted funding which made the rollout of the ‘Exchange Activate’ project possible at all. If it were not a case of the ‘full price for half a service’ I might agree.
Kevin Arrowsmith
Durness
Thanks for your posting, Ian. You raise some interesting points.
A couple of years ago the Rural Gateway ran an Ask an Expert with Brendan Dick of BT Scotland. Some of the information may be slightly out of date now, with technology moving so quickly, but you can see BT's answers to questions from Rural Gateway users. Here's the link: http://www.ruralgateway.org.uk/item/1218
There is still time, but only two days, to register a broadband access problem for inclusion in the Scottish Government's Broadband Reach Project. Closing date is 30th May 2008. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/BroadbandforScotland/Register
Information on Exchnage Activate Upgrades might also be interesting for people in some rural areas:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/BroadbandforScotland/SEBroadbandInitiatives/Announcements
How does lack of broadband or slow broadband affect your access to services? Join the discussion and add your comments.
Scottish Executive's Announcement of Avanti rollout of Broadband to the 'NotSpots'
8-Jul-2008 @ 09:02AM
Simone Nelson
On Thursday June 26th SE sent out an announcement that had been awaited for so many years - my own file goes back to 2001! I read the Terms & Conditions of this Avanti offer to us all? No 2 - you may not connect a 'Server' - did this mean what it implied - i.e. those of us in business who had their own Small Business Server would not be able to use the service?
Satellite connections of course produce latency which is the death knell to transferring data.
Avanti stated that only other Avanti user would be able to access my server. Dial up Broadband users would not! So my Colleague in Orkney who manages my Server would not be able to access it nor would the despatch group in Inverness be able to come into my system and produce the despatch list and labels.
On June 18th Raymond O’Hare – Mr. Microsoft for Scotland and current Chair of the Institute of Directors – lectured the 6th Formers of Inverness at the UHI and those of us who watched the video link on the exciting future for the Scottish Highlands as communication draw ever closer together - what an opportunity for them!
A week later Scottish Executive make an announcement which seems to preclude any drawing together whatsoever for business!
Scottish Executive promise that clarification on this point along with the Avanti offer currently to be sent out to all those who registered their lack of Broadband from BT any day now.
Currently I can Skype, use GotToMeeting and demonstrate to others on my own PC or go and watch others on their own PC – Emmett has nothing on me – my very temporary solution (of some 20 months) is a wireless connection to the last person on the Lochside with ADSL – my staff use ‘dongles’ – desperately iffy in good weather (!) but we get by – always with an eye to when we get the proper solution!!!
Because the NotSpots are spread out all over Scotland – it is not just the Highlands – we are of course not connected – and many businesses may not realize that this offer may not be the panacea to all our ills. Those of us who are listed (no contact details) who attended the HIE meeting on June 7th last year in the Greenhouse, I have tried to find you all, but for some I still have not got contact details. Although I have absolutely no wish to be the spokesperson, I am willing to ensure that we are connected and informed – so please feel free to phone me 01854 333833 or email simone@CM1.biz. I am/was the lady on June 7th with the ‘pink’ hair!