I know that the reli bloggee from Embra will sigh with another cut and paste job but this letter from the columns of the Berwickshire will resonate with a number of Mersians who have believed that they can be connected to Broadband courtesy of BT subsidised by the Scottish Executive:
SIR,- I would like to urge David Gass of Scottish Enterprise Borders to use caution when quoting the statistic of more than 98 per cent of the region being able to access broadband by the end of 2005 (Berwickshire News, October 20).If my experience is anything to go by, BT is being less than truthful about the extent of broadband availability.I recently applied to my current service provider, AOL, to upgrade to broadband. They checked with BT if my phone line was suitable, received confirmation that it was, and sent me a connection kit. When this failed to work, BT blamed AOL and vice versa.It took a call to BT on my behalf from a very helpful chap in the Scottish Executive to find out the truth: living just three and half miles from the centre of Duns, I am too far from the exchange. I cannot get broadband because the technology used to roll out broadband to the masses is distance limited.To add insult to injury, when I contacted BT again about a possible compromise solution - ISDN (at least I would be able to use the telephone when I was online) - I was told that this was no longer available to new customers, but not to worry because according to their computer I could get broadband.I applaud SE Borders for championing the roll-out of broadband, but maybe the picture isn't as rosy as they have been led to believe.We in the nether regions of outer Hutton a full 2.something miles from the constantly being fiddled with Paxton Exchange (apparently a trysting point for BT vans on an away day-most days that seems) have had great problems in getting a reliable broadband connection with neither BT nor the ISP (yes, AOL, in Huttonian's case) taking any responsiblty. At last our near neighbour after making a tremendous fuss and enlisting the support of the Community Council has got the connection which after a very bad start and lengthy visits by BT engineers leaving the comfort of the Paxton exchange, is now working ok. Fortunately the Old Manse has inherited the ISDN connection from the old post office in our 'Milk room' so we are better off than the letter writer with regard to our main computer. I can only hope that her dial up speed is a bit faster than mine on the non ISDNed PC - a startling 2400 bps and that only with a westerly and following wind. To down load an attachment might take up to two days (well it seems like that)which is bad news if you want to use the phone or await a call from the latest 'cold' salesperson-think of all the double glazing offers and those for cut price demonstration kitchens we have probably missed whilst being on line.
