By Graeme Wearden, 15 January 2004 08:35
NEWS One of Britain's broadband black spots will soon vanish, after BT decided not to make a wireless operator wait an extra six months for a vital high-speed link.
Businesses and consumers in parts of rural Norfolk can finally look forward to getting high-speed wireless internet, after the conclusion of a row which brought BT's integrity into question.
Wireless broadband provider West Norfolk Community Broadband (WNCB) learned earlier this week that the two backhaul connections that it had ordered, and which BT was failing to install, would both be fitted by Wednesday.
Previously, WNCB had been told it could be forced to wait until May 2004 before both links were fitted - six months later than the original installation dates of mid-December 2003.
BT currently doesn't offer broadband in some of the places targeted by WNCB, but is expected to start offering ADSL services from exchanges in the area during the coming months. The trouble experienced by WNCB had led to speculation that Britain's incumbent telco might have deliberately engineered the delays - a charge that BT has denied.
Will Newman, operations director of Dark Side Technologies - the company responsible for setting up and running the WNCB network - is delighted that he finally has the chance to provide high-speed internet services.
Newman said: "I am still reeling from this amazing change in fortunes. I am not sure exactly what triggered BT to finally react, but suffice to say that we will finally be able to deliver on our promises to our customers."
WNCB is at least the second wireless provider to experience problems when attempting to buy high-speed backhaul links from BT recently. FDM Broadband suffered a series of hitches late last year, with some links delivered late and others failing to work for days at a time.
Despite BT having apologised, and having denied that there was any intent behind these difficulties, some rural broadband activists remain suspicious. Both WNCB and FDM Broadband have complained to Ofcom about BT's actions, and it's likely that any other company that is unfortunate enough to experience similar problems in the future will do the same.
Graeme Wearden writes for ZDNet UK
Comments
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1. Janet Edmonds
I would dearly love a broadband connection but, oh dear, I live a massive four miles from Bath city centre and am obviously far too rural!
2. Ron Thompson
Wouldent it be nice to have Broadband, BT tells me it's great and how much faster it is. They sent me a lovely colour brochure through the post tell me how to apply saying get it all from UK's No. 1 Internet provider, that's only because they had an monopoly and people never changed. Why don't they stop the usless advertising and spend the money in upgrading the exchanges to take Broadband. Stop telling us how good they are and be good!
3. anonymous
Rural Mid Wales must rank as one of the world's finest examples of BT's gross inefficiency. Living and trying to run any kind of internet based research from rural Mid Wales is a nightmare. Not only are connection speeds slower than rural Ethiopia - I know that, I have experience of both - but once connected, the chances of the line dropping within minutes are high. And yet BT have the gall to charge full whack for the line. If any small business tried this they'd be out of orders within a week and probably taken to the small claims court to boot. How do they get away with it?
Then they leave it to the communtiy to come up with hundreds of names in order to justify the investment for broadband in places where there population figures don't stretch to match. Is this just another way of BT's funding O2? Or is it worse: management.