BT holds up Broadband

Following the successful campaign earlier this year to get BT to upgrade the Brent Knoll telephone exchange to allow Broadband Internet connections, Broadband4Brent campaigners have learned that it is likely to be December 2004 before BT will make high-speed connections available in Brent Knoll and East Brent.

Derek Almond, Steve Baggs, David Filmer and Tony Gore, all from Brent Knoll, got together early in January to drum up the support that BT required before they would commit to upgrading the exchange. At the start of the campaign, only 79 people on the Brent Knoll exchange had registered their support for Broadband. Within 10 days the target of 200 registrations had been reached, and the total now stands at over 330. The Broadband campaign for the Brent Knoll exchange has been one of the fastest-growing and most successful in the country.

Despite this success, the campaigners have now heard from BT that it will probably be December before the exchange can be upgraded, because new cables have to be installed. Broadband4Brent campaigner Steve Baggs said, “This is a great disappointment to us, and no doubt to all those who took the trouble to register. BT has encouraged communities like ours to market Broadband on their behalf, but they must have known when they set our target that the capacity wasn’t there. Although we quickly reached their target, and then exceeded it by a large margin, they have been very reluctant to set a date for the upgrade – now we know why.”

The campaigners are not beaten yet, though. They are talking to suppliers of a wireless Broadband scheme, which could offer high-speed Internet access in the villages at around the same price as one using BT’s telephone lines, but within weeks rather than months.  Steve Baggs explained, “If there is enough support for the wireless option, then people won’t have to wait for BT to lay their cables – we can go ahead now. Alternatively, BT could install a temporary microwave or satellite link, so the exchange can be upgraded right away. Once the new cables are laid, the radio link can be removed. Campaigns like ours have provided BT with huge amounts of free publicity – it is time they repaid some of that effort.”

To find out whether the wireless Broadband service would be viable, the Broadband4Brent campaign needs to hear from anyone who would be interested in this alternative approach. The team can be contacted via the campaign’s web site at www.broadband4brent.co.uk.

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