Businesses lose out as broadband falls over

Wednesday 27 August 2008 12:15:35 by Andrew Ferguson

The BBC has highlighted a broadband problem that is affecting businesses in the town of Penrhyndeudraeth, Gwynedd. This latest incident started on 18th August, and is the third problem for the area since November 2007.

It is not clear whether there is a total loss of broadband in the town, or whether just some are affected. It is entirely possible that the exchange based DSLAM has some faulty line cards meaning some ADSL lines will still be working, or that the fault lies outside the exchange. Given that the fault has been ongoing for a week, the suggestion is that it needs something more than a simple reset.

In the cases of businesses, while it may sound a glib response, ensuring you have some form of backup connection is very important, for many small businesses a dial-up or mobile broadband connection would allow important emails to be received and sent, or perhaps have a reciprocal arrangement to share a broadband connection with a company on another exchange. For consumers when it is your own connection, borrowing the neighbours or visiting a Wi-Fi hotspot is the simplest answer.

We have asked BT Wholesale for more information on the problem, and those affected still should report problems via their broadband provider. Alas given the small size of Penrhyndeudraeth it is likely that the various LLU providers will never make an appearance, so people are stuck with the BT Wholesale based offerings.