I thought with the arrival of the long awaited Broadband to the Paxton we would have had one less moan about rural isolation. I ordered, with great delight, the all winging, all prancing, post sliced bread AOL Gold. 1 mb speed-see the whole BBC news on line faster than watching it on TV, get the winners at horse races before they start the race, and get Mr Deakin's forecast as quickly as zipping your pants. The connection package arrived but before I tore it open with trembling feverish anticipatory hands I thought I should check the BT website to see if I really could enjoy the benefits of the new technology BT was cautious and non committal -my house was at extreme range from the Paxton exchange, ADSL connection not certain, better get the line checked etc etc. On enquiry with BT interactive I was told BT could only check the line fully on request from AOL to BT Wholesale. On enquiry on 'AOL LIVE HELP' I was told firmly That AOL provided the service but they did not ask BT to do anything that was up to the customer. How could I be sure that Broadband would work without having my line checked-sorry that was not AOL's problem and BT would not budge either. So I have just cancelled AOL Gold, and await a free post jiffy bag to send back the filters, modems etc.
I will now wait a year or two until I see how my neighbours get on-split lines in Hutton village is another possible hazard to a good connection. In the meanwhile I shall make further use of my ISDN connection and continue to moan about rural isolation.
