BT responds to concerns about slow broadband in Pawlett

11:10am Saturday 19th January 2013 in News By Matthew Colledge

BT responds to concerns about slow broadband in Pawlett BT responds to concerns about slow broadband in Pawlett

BT says improvements to broadband in rural Somerset are on the horizon after one villager branded his internet speed “deplorable”.

Rob Blandford has written to the firm, and also to local and national politicians, to highlight the slow broadband connection in Pawlett.

Mr Blandford said: “Broadband speeds are deplorable in the rural area of Pawlett. Despite constant appeals to the relevant responsible authorities nothing will be done.

“BT tell me that the "exchange" and "street boxes" passing broadband are not scheduled for upgrade despite many complaints.

“This is unacceptable.”

Mr Blandford says upload speeds in Pawlett are less than 0.5 megabytes per second.

He adds: “This particular area has a school, shop, post office, veterinary, a garage, private enterprises and small holdings working from home, a Royal British Legion complex, a social pavilion, sports fields, as well as many elderly people dependent on broadband communication.

“All are suffering from an inadequate service enjoyed by others.”

BT spokesman Jason Mann said the firm had remotely tested a line in Pawlett, though not Mr Blandford's, which found speeds of two to three MBPS should be achievable.

However, Mr Mann added: “There are a variety of factors which can affect broadband speeds, including a customer's own equipment and the distance of a customer from the telephone exchange.

“Pawlett is several kilometres from the exchange, so broadband speeds are unlikely to be particularly high there.

“However, speeds are likely to vary from one customer to a next, even within a village, because of the distance they are to the network, not the distance as the crow flies.

“BT is rolling out fibre optic broadband to nearly 200,000 homes and businesses in Somerset.

“This has already happened in many places and will be happening in many others by the end of the year.

“The Connecting Devon and Somerset project, of which BT is the preferred bidder, will also make a big difference.

“When it is up and running, it will offer a big opportunity for rural areas which are more challenging to connect for commercial reasons.”

Comments(15)

RustyKnight says...
10:44am Sun 20 Jan 13

BT might be bringing fibre optic broadband to 200,000 homes and businesses in Somerset but you can guarantee that unless you live in the middle of a town you won't get it.

Every time I go to the BT website and use their link to test the maximum speed I can get it says there's no plan to bring super-fast broadband to our exchange!

What I want to know is how can BT guarantee a speed of 15Mbs when O2 coming from the same exchange only manages 7Mbs at best?

Report this post »

windswept and interesting says...
2:38pm Sun 20 Jan 13

Getting 59 Mb at the moment :)

Report this post »

RustyKnight says...
9:54am Mon 21 Jan 13

windswept and interesting wrote:
Getting 59 Mb at the moment :)
Yeah, and probably paying the same, if not less, than those of us out in the sticks who are getting a 10th of the speed!

Its about time someone got this broadband pricing con out in the open and fixed.

Why should us out in the countryside have to pay 3 times as much for our broadband and receive at 10th of the speed?

Report this post »

windswept and interesting says...
12:35pm Mon 21 Jan 13

RustyKnight wrote:
windswept and interesting wrote:
Getting 59 Mb at the moment :)
Yeah, and probably paying the same, if not less, than those of us out in the sticks who are getting a 10th of the speed!

Its about time someone got this broadband pricing con out in the open and fixed.

Why should us out in the countryside have to pay 3 times as much for our broadband and receive at 10th of the speed?
Could'nt agree more. I am actually paying top whack with BT and the upgrade to Infinity cost nothing, but I like the service and if there has been a problem its been sorted right away.

Its not only folks like yourselves that can't get it - I have friends in Manchester who cannot get more than basic speed because they have not put high speed in yet.

Report this post »

frags27 says...
12:41pm Mon 21 Jan 13

RustyKnight wrote:
windswept and interesting wrote:
Getting 59 Mb at the moment :)
Yeah, and probably paying the same, if not less, than those of us out in the sticks who are getting a 10th of the speed!

Its about time someone got this broadband pricing con out in the open and fixed.

Why should us out in the countryside have to pay 3 times as much for our broadband and receive at 10th of the speed?
RustyKnight I know what you are saying at the end of the day if you live too far away from the exchange performance and the speed you get will be not as good as someone who is less than half a mile from the exchange. Blame the infrastructure in place and the outdated telephone system in this country and cabling. You pay the same as someone who has a better connection as the ISP still provides the same service. Pricing isn't a con as such on ISP's as you can shop around however they all use the cables and lines in place from the Telcoms that is where the con is. The downside of living in the countryside is you don't get as good a connection as a Town or City person because it costs more money to provide the service with less chance of getting the money investigated back as there are less people living there, its as simple as that. I remember being in an area that first had dial up available out of 56k max I got 48 and that was years before broadband I had to move to get broadband in a different area!!

Report this post »

RustyKnight says...
11:07am Tue 22 Jan 13

Pricing is a con, we don't pay any extra for phone calls, or electricity bills, or water, or any other services so why broadband?

If I were in Bridgwater I'd be paying £7.50 a month for my broadband and gettings close to 50Mbs, but because I live out here in Cannington I have to pay £22.50 and only get 5Mbs!

Report this post »

windswept and interesting says...
11:23am Tue 22 Jan 13

I think the cheapest infinity package is £18 - you may get it cheaper for an intro period but as far as I know £18 is the lowest for high speed fibre optic

Report this post »

frags27 says...
12:36pm Tue 22 Jan 13

Rusty Knight I live in Bridgwater about a mile from the exchange I cannot get anywhere near what you are quoting Infact BT Infinity the super fibre optic connection isn't available in Bridgwater yet. Neither is Virgin Media Cable as cable isn't in the area either. I get the same amount 5Mbps and Max is 6 although I don't get this amount. I don't pay anywhere near the amount you pay per month so you should shop around once out of contract look for companies that have their own telephone equipment in the exchange as that will give you a better connection and faster.

Report this post »

windswept and interesting says...
2:57pm Tue 22 Jan 13

frags27 wrote:
Rusty Knight I live in Bridgwater about a mile from the exchange I cannot get anywhere near what you are quoting Infact BT Infinity the super fibre optic connection isn't available in Bridgwater yet. Neither is Virgin Media Cable as cable isn't in the area either. I get the same amount 5Mbps and Max is 6 although I don't get this amount. I don't pay anywhere near the amount you pay per month so you should shop around once out of contract look for companies that have their own telephone equipment in the exchange as that will give you a better connection and faster.
BT Infinity is available in Bridgwater. I'm on Bower and have had it for a good few months now .

Report this post »

frags27 says...
6:26pm Tue 22 Jan 13

Windswept must be the fact our telephone number is really old then as its not available and I am on Bower as well but house was one of the ones first built on the estate. Maybe a newer number is ok, I will be moving before long so no point in looking any further really.

Report this post »

windswept and interesting says...
7:04pm Tue 22 Jan 13

frags27 wrote:
Windswept must be the fact our telephone number is really old then as its not available and I am on Bower as well but house was one of the ones first built on the estate. Maybe a newer number is ok, I will be moving before long so no point in looking any further really.
Could be .... I'm pretty sure all of Bower was upgraded when they had all the roads up last year and all the cabinets were upgraded. That why there are always BT vans at the top of Westonzoyland Rd / eastern Ave and further down eastern Ave as they have to do something in the box to convert you to Fibre Optic.

Must admit very impressed with BT. Found out online the day it went live in our area. Applied to upgrade on the Friday and they did it on the Wednesday

Report this post »

Backwardssomerset says...
7:47pm Tue 22 Jan 13

The only thing going super fast here in Cannington will be the traffic going to HInkley Point when the new power station is being built. As for getting faster Broadband it look like according to the BBC that there delays due to connecting Devon & Somerset not being able to agree with the waste of time that is BT, oh well I suppose as long as Taunton is OK that's all that matters to Somerset County Council.

Report this post »

ToRusty says...
7:18am Wed 23 Jan 13

I live around the docks in town not so far away from the exchange and it's only been recently that I've had a stable broadband line, when the phone rang the Internet would cut out and the phone line was rubbish, this had been going on for about six years. It's funny every time I complained about it thay said there was no fault on the line it's my end. Had enough so was complaing every day and kept logs of when it cut out. Still reckons it was my end even though I only had the phone and router plugged into the master socket. Strange thing is six months ago when they started to upgrade the exchange my line got better. But was still only getting 2mbps now it's just gone up to about 13.
I refuse to have to pay for the fibre optic stuff when there are no garuntees that it will be better and it's only to the street cabinet not to the house.
Sorry for the waffle on but I know local villages broadband speed are rubbish but there are plenty in the town not so good either.

Report this post »

Krysiz says...
8:17pm Wed 23 Jan 13

It's always been the same, broadband speeds have always been slow in villages etc.. that's nothing new. It's the same everywhere in the country even Taunton. If you want Fibre Optic move into town and stop your moaning. Another bit of advice is avoid BT with there traffic shaping and stupid download caps. Unless your a business where they have a complete monopoly.

Report this post »

Greg0986 says...
6:32pm Fri 25 Jan 13

Apparently, I was one of the first in Bridgwater to get FTTC last May with speeds of over 65Mbps :D. Pawlett might be getting FTTC soon as I saw BT install, what I can only assume to be, fibre optic lines in the sewers which is what they did last March before the FTTC line got activated.

Report this post »

click2find

About cookies

We want you to enjoy your visit to our website. That's why we use cookies to enhance your experience. By staying on our website you agree to our use of cookies. Find out more about the cookies we use.

I agree