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6 Welsh broadband not-spots to get broadband
Friday 19 December 2008 10:31:29 by John Hunt

In line with their promises about eliminating broadband not-spots, the Wales Assembly Government's Regional Innovative Broadband Support Scheme (RIBS) has extended its contract with BT that will see the communities of Reynalton, Saundersfoot, Llanpumsaint and Bronwydd Arms, Cilcennin in Ceredigion and Gwytherin, Conwy able to get broadband. Under the scheme, BT Openreach will fund half of the needed work for the project, and work is expected to start immediately.

These 6 not-spots cover around 1,000 residents and are part of a larger group where broadband is not available for various reasons including, poor quality telephone lines or just being too far from the Exchange. If you live in an area of Wales where broadband is unavailable, be sure to register on the Welsh Assembly's Broadband not-spot website.

[ Topic: Broadband | 36 comments | link to this item ]

Comments

Posted by maximise over 3 years ago
Great for the Principality, but does anyone have figures for the rest of the UK?

Would find any info helpful. A survey that I did last year identified several schools that did not have access to Broadband, some eight years after my initial pilot in an Oxfordshire school!

Posted by dragon1945 over 3 years ago
We get 512 kbps if we have BT. Talktalk have their own equipment in the Exchange, and manage 1.6 MB on the same phone line. BT can't be asked to boost the signal from the exchange, as the line will obviously support 1.5MB at least. They have consistently told me the line can only support 512 kbps which is obviously a lie. Left to BT we will never have 2MB, which I think is the minimum acceptable level. As for rolling fibre optic cable out here - no chance. The shareholders would not approve of the outlay of all that money with no hope of ever recouping the cost.

Posted by comnut over 3 years ago
It seems BT uses 'profile' or something, that means it is stuck at this ancient speed..

So not a 'lie' just a blind belief that thier ancient system is 'the best' - I think the new 21CN is meant to improve on this, but can you wait the years it will take to get this going??

Posted by Darrenw over 3 years ago
At last, my Mom lives in Reynalton, expect it will take another 20y to get Fiber their though.

Posted by uniquename over 3 years ago
@dragon

BT at times are unbelievable. There is currently a dispute going on where a user has experienced a fall in sync from somewhere near the maximum to consistently well below the FTR. However, the rubbish line speed estimate database gives a figure below the current sync.

So the reply by BT to the user's ISP is that the performance is within the estimate, so the FTR is irrelevant.

Posted by Dawn_Falcon over 3 years ago
maximise - Schools should have a leased line, not DSL. Sounds like a funding issue to me, if they can't afford a leased line.

dragon1945 - Different equipment gives different results. Shock, horror. This is not "BT lying", it's simply different hardware. There are other situations where the BT equipment would be better.

And why can't they hope to recoup the cost? LLU leeches.

Posted by chrysalis over 3 years ago
BT can and do overule FTR, so uniquename you are correct FTR it seems is a useless figure as BT wont honour it if its inconveniant to them.

Posted by CARPETBURN over 3 years ago
quote"And why can't they hope to recoup the cost? LLU leeches."

Gibbering nonsense again, parts of Wales have had issues getting broadband long before LLU even existed. Take your MEDS!

Posted by comnut over 3 years ago
hmmm. "LLU leeches" have proved that it CAN be made much better, faster and more 'easy' to manage - At the time it started, all BT would do is leer at how 'hopeless' the LLU's were... and now they are moaning about 'declining profits'...

It seems very much like IBM was, the biggest PC maker, thought it would never die("we make the best machines, at a a business price!"), until others proved them wrong - they did/do not want 'best' they want 'cheap'...

Posted by herdwick over 3 years ago
"We get 512 kbps if we have BT. Talktalk have their own equipment in the Exchange, and manage 1.6 MB on the same phone line." so would most ISPs using BT Wholesale as they would put you on a MaxDSL service rather than fixed speed.

Posted by ian72 over 3 years ago
@Dawn_Falcon - schools should indeed have a leased line. By I know of schools in my area where installing a leased line would cost around £430,000 due to the amount of works that would have to be undertaken.
There are other ways but some schools are incredibly difficult to connect.

Posted by chusan01 over 3 years ago
Well said CARPETBURN - exactly the same kind of issue we have here in Nigeria

Posted by Dawn_Falcon over 3 years ago
No comnut, they haven't. They've proven that by picking and chosing the market and using other people's network and lines it's possible to leech profit away from investment in the future of the actual infrastructure.

It's nothing like the IBM situation. That was actual competition, not leeching.

Carpet - If BT hasn't had to accomodate the LLU leeches, they could of dealt with things like this themselves.

Posted by Dawn_Falcon over 3 years ago
@ian72 - I've seen estimates like that before - and frankly that's not expensive for a council.

Posted by cyberdoyle over 3 years ago
Cumbria and Lancashire schools all have minimum 8meg connections thanks to CLEO, some have 100meg and this is being rolled out to all of them. Just wish BT would take a leaf out of their book and JFDI instead of milking an obsolete copper network and calling half a meg 'broadband'. Good luck to the Welsh, lead the way boyo

Posted by herdwick over 3 years ago
"Just wish BT would take a leaf out of their book " - it's a leaf out of their *cheque* book that's required. Loadsamoney was thrown at Regional Broadband Consortia like CLEO to provide connections to schools etc, just like the Welsh are now having to throw money around to fill in notspots.

Posted by Somerset over 3 years ago
Is CLEO ADSL or dedicated circuits?

As in:

If you are having building works carried out, our engineers need at least one month’s notice to schedule in moves of CLEO equipment, and three months for all BT fibre moves. Each holiday period we receive many short notice requests to move CLEO broadband equipment.

Please remember that building in front of your wireless antenna is likely to stop your CLEO connection working. It is essential we have adequate notice to avoid impacting on your broadband connection.

Posted by Somerset over 3 years ago
So discussing CLEO is not relevant in this discussion...

Broadband does not always mean ADSL.

Posted by CARPETBURN over 3 years ago
I wonder how much cash BT slurpped of the Welsh Assembly to do something that should had been done years ago?

Posted by Somerset over 3 years ago
Does anyone know what they are actually doing?

Posted by elegog over 3 years ago
kit that stops people on S/foot exhange getting any b/b ( B/Ts lack of investement at places like Summerhill & Amroth) speeds from B/Ts kit hired from B/T by the ISPs at S/Foot x/c means that users at Kilgetty are lucky to see 350kbps. Part of the line is aluminium. My isp does not "throttle" at peak times our money being given to B/T will NOT be used to increase speeds or remove Ally . A W.A.G. "NOT SPOT" is anywere with speeds below 512 kbps. Contact Mr Renault W.A.G 01443846701 Angela Burns W.A.G . Member S. Pembrokeshire based at Narberth ( Web site for e-mail)

Posted by Somerset over 3 years ago
Pity the GPO hadn't thought of ADSL 100 years ago.

Posted by CARPETBURN over 3 years ago
quote"Pity the GPO hadn't thought of ADSL 100 years ago."

Pity the so called privatised improvement improved errrr NOTHING in this case.

Posted by Somerset over 3 years ago
Somebody called Mrs Thatcher stopped them putting fibre in.

Posted by CARPETBURN over 3 years ago
Who is stopping them now?? Oh thats right they are holding out trying to milk government for every penny they can to help.
I also fail to see how your initial comment of
"Pity the GPO hadn't thought of ADSL 100 years ago" and fibre are even related.

Posted by CARPETBURN over 3 years ago
There is no excuse for certain areas "NOT-SPOTS" not to have a normal ADSL service after al these years.

Posted by Somerset over 3 years ago
If the GPO had known about ADSL limits they might had put exchanges in diferent places...

Posted by CARPETBURN over 3 years ago
quote"If the GPO had known about ADSL limits they might had put exchanges in diferent places... "

If the modern BT gave a damn they would put new exchanges where they need placing, even in an area like mine which still has good service many new homes are being built, what they gonna do when exchange space runs dry??? I suspect nothing and my service and thousands of others on the exchange will go to the dogs (well mine hopefully wont being LLU)

Posted by Somerset over 3 years ago
New exchanges aren't the answer, FTTC or FTTH is. New kit does not take up much space compared with mechanical and electronic exchanges.

Posted by CARPETBURN over 3 years ago
I agree fibre is indeed the way forward, question is should the government be helping BT or anyone to fund it in financial times like we currently have?
BT have to take some responsibility, they wanted to be a private industry now its about time they ran their company to the standard required. Exchanges all over the land are overcrowded, cables failing apart like moldy old string, and what do BT do...... They cry when one year they make a financial loss, beg government for help funding fibre and carry on filling shareholders pockets.... No wonder they are a complete shambles.

Posted by Somerset over 3 years ago
'BT have to take some responsibility, they wanted to be a private industry'.

'Exchanges all over the land are overcrowded'.

'cables failing apart like moldy old string'.

Where do you get each of these from?

Posted by CARPETBURN over 3 years ago
Samknows shows exchanges and their free capacity and how crowded they are.... Please visit there and see how many are red and amber in status rather than green.

As to cables falling apart like moldy old string, BT thereself even admit that, unless you are saying the patch work fix jobs done with alluminium dont exist?

Posted by Somerset over 3 years ago
CB - that does explain 'overcrowded'. Just means waiting for cards or racks.

Do you have any links about these cables 'falling apart'?

Mrs Thatcher was behind privatisation, which freeded BT from the government.

Posted by CARPETBURN over 3 years ago
quote"CB - that does explain 'overcrowded'. Just means waiting for cards or racks."

Indeed in SOME cases that is correct, if however you also goto http://usertools.plus.net/exchanges/ you soon realise many with red status are indeed short on capacity.

On the alloy cable issue again, this is a quick link i found about one villages nightmare of aluminium cables and how fragile they are.
http://uk.geocities.com/btalicables/tech.htm
It seems BT final fixed it after oh about 40 years LOL

Posted by CARPETBURN over 3 years ago
Cabling in that area was very poor with more than a few joins and if you can be bothered to read everything on that site (wont moan if you cant) you will notice BT with part of the cabling serving that area didnt even put it in a duct, no wonder it went bad ;) Makes you wonder how many other not spots and poor areas are similar?

Posted by comnut over 3 years ago
LOL and people moan about 'other ISPs' not ducting/routing properly!!!