BT boss has only broadband home

[Peter Parker]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8386224.stm

So... he's the only one in the village?

[dave87]

Hmm, surprised the boss of BT doesn't get provision of a leased line as part of his contract.


For monitoring purposes and all that...

[abaxas]

Hmm, surprised the boss of BT doesn't get provision of a leased line as part of his contract.


For monitoring purposes and all that...

BT is the worst company EVER. If you have worked for them, it's like the bastard son of the private and public sectors. Worst part of both.

[pollaxe]

So... he's the only one in the village?

Typically BT (though I daresay you could accuse other companies of similar.) As someone who can't get faster than 512 kbps I do have to sympathise with Sir Michael's neighbours.

[jim]

Strikes me as more typical whingeing - is it really that surprising?

I'm sure at one point people would've considered that perfectly understandable and normal - instead it's considered "unfair" and probably infringing on their human rights. Before I sound like a Daily Mail reader (I'm not), I'll hold fire on this one though.

[digit]

Strikes me as more typical whingeing - is it really that surprising?

Small number of people in village in the middle of nowhere vs hundreds of thousands / millions in towns + cities? Of course its not going to be BT's number one priority to get Internet to people in the sticks. I bet if they were included in the trial and the service went down there would be massive uproar and complaints that its not good enough the trial was experiencing issues etc.

[Saracen]

I too have a degree of scepticism about this.

Firstly, if he's part of a trial how successful (or otherwise)was the trial?

Secondly, what might work on a test basis might well not as a full commercial service. Could it stand the contention ratios?

Next, doing it as a test, or even as a one-off service might be a sound business decision but not be commercially viable for consumers.

All sorts of issues like that cross my mind. What also crosses my mind, though, is that as a PR exercise, this getting out does show a substantial amount of insensitivity to a touchy subject by BT. That, personally speaking, is no surprise.

[Syllopsium]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8386224.stm

So... he's the only one in the village?

It's not that black and white

It's a trial of SHDSL, and the kit and line rental required to do so is out of reach of all but the rich..

Router : 100-300 quid
Line installation : 3 lines (2 data, one voice) : 120 quid each
Line rental : 40 quid x 3 every 3 months
SHDSL installation and running cost : unknown - let's use SDSL figures instead.
Installation : 200 quid
cost, per month: 200 quid+

Could be a lot worse. Instead of running a trial which might eventually come to the village at a high (or subsidised) cost, they could just have installed a leased line as a perk of being the chairman - a technology that is open to pretty much everyone.

'2Mb Leased line Mrs Miggins? Certainly we can do that - where's the 15 grand?'
(actual amount unknown, but leased line costs vary by distance, so it might be ludicrously high).

PK

[Giraffe]

Why are the villagers so envious of some one who has BT broadband - don't they know about the 'CS'?

[gamesaregood]

I really don't see what all the fuss is about, ok so if he had normal ADSL on his line when others could not I could understand but someone has to test these new technology advances.... Its could lead to others in the village being able to purchase this new technology in the future if its a success...

[aidanjt]

You gotta laugh when you get a bunch of numpties moving into the middle of nowhere, then complaining when certain amenities are not available or sparsely available.

If they really care about broadband that much why don't they band together and get a leased line rolled into the town and figure out 'last-mile' connectivity from there.

[icemantaz]

i would love to know what freak said he should resign lol