Letter: Village broadband speed on a go slow
I read Nigel Hastilow's article (Star, January 30) on slow broadband with interest and amusement. He complains about super slow speeds of only 5Mbps.
Out here, in the wilderness of North Shropshire, we would consider that the height of luxury compared to the measly 1.6Mbps, maximum, delivered by BT's equivalent of pigeon post.
On two occasions, I have written to the BT CEO to ask why our service cannot be up to the standard achieved in many other places. On each occasion, I have received very speedy responses which start by trying to blame poor performance on the infrastructure in the house. Then, when it is demonstrated that there is nothing wrong with our installation, concedes that it is because of cabling to the village.
What is interesting is that, on each occasion of complaining, the service appears to improve for a short time before returning to mediocrity.
In spite of "green boxes" sprouting up in Welshampton, Cockshutt and Ellesmere, BT can provide no timescale when it will improve services in our village.
I feel somewhat envious of the 16Mbps achieved after BT's intervention on Nigel Hastilow's behalf, even though I know this is much less than that achieved in other places. My only plea is that our MP and the Shropshire Star continues to campaign for rural communities to be given the same broadband provision as that available in many other parts of the country.
John Baines, Lyneal
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