Damned broadband coverage!

[Guest benzo]

I am unlucky.

I am an NTL phone line customer trying to upgrade to broadband. NTL cable modem is not available to my area, SE London (although digital TV is).

I do not want to change to BT phone, as I hate them as a company (monopoly issues).

What is left for me? I absolutely hate dial up- so slow!

Advice much appreciated.

Benzo

[Guest siu99spj]

There's Blueyonder (or Telewest, might do your area) or a satellite link up (Expensive).

There's also the possibility of ISDN but that usually involves BT again.

Personally I have a BT line for my broadband and its fine. All my calls are done on my mobile (Cheaper) so the BT line is used purely for bradband or incoming calls only.

Otherwise, you just got to wait for NTL to catch up. :)

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

IDSN is only 128k, not worth it really :/

BY or TW i thought only covered area's NTL don't?

[Guest meaks]

You dont like monoply's but your using a microsoft phone!?!?!

[Guest benzo]

Different issues here.

At the end of the day, if I don't like the SPV MS phone, I can adopt a different technology.

With BT it's a little different. They made sure that deregulation of their phone lines and exchanges was a bloody painful process.. hence I am now and have been a 56k dial-up person for the last 4 years.. and it looks like it will be another 4 years till I get some kind of high-bandwidth connection.

In my eyes, BT typifies a "monopoly".

[Guest charliem74]

Mono is right, Telewest / Blueyonder does not offer its services in areas where NTL is available.

I wouldn't hold your breath in waiting for NTL to upgrade the network in your area, given their recent financial problems.

If you want an affordable broadband connection, with decent upstream and downstream speeds, your only option is ADSL, for which you will require a BT line. You don't, however, have to use BT Openworld as your broadband provider, there are other ISPs who will provide you with an ADSL modem and a subscription.

[Guest john.sw]

There is no Cable in my area.

There is no BT Broadband in my area.

BT won't even set a target for Broadband pre-registrations for my area.

BT say they do not plan to install Broadband in my area.

We can't get FreeView set top box coverage in my area.

We can't get Channel 5 in my area, although we can normally see Channel 4, and BBC1 & 2 are sometimes just about clear enough to see - apart from in winter.

We can't get mains drainage or mains water in my area.

We don't have a local shop or a local post office or a local bank in my area.

We don't have a sports centre or a swimming pool in my area.

We don't have a policeman, or a road sweeper or a lollipop man in my area.

But there is an up-side:-

We pay high rates for all the services we can't get.

We don't get a rebate from the BBC for reception we can't get.

oh, and we have trees and fields and sheep that say "baa".

[Guest b1uepower]

Have you tryed pipex http://www.pipex.com ?? :?:

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

Pipex are DSL providers, running of the BT network.

john.sw: are you Welsh?

[Guest john.sw]

Not Welsh, but English - half way between Leeds and Manchester, high in the Pennines.

We live in a rural area of England where there are over 500 small businesses operating from home.

Because of the ridiculous Common Agricultural Policy (which gives subsidies to inefficient "farmers" in Europe, and then forces us to throw away our produce) we have been told to diversify, and that is what has happened.

We converted a barn on the farm and relocated our office from the mighty metropolis of Huddersfield.

The working environment is great - all those sheep that say "baa", and the fields and the trees - the commute into work takes about 5 seconds (unless there is heavy traffic on the stairs, in which case the commute time can double), but we had been promised by King Blair that Broadband would be rolled out all over the country, and this simply hasn't happened!

When the government told us to diversity, convert barns to offices, and bring employment to rural areas, we expected the infrastructure to be put in place.

It is all very well to say that 95% of the population has Broadband coverage, but 95% of the population lives in towns!

BT proudly announced that we can buy Satellite Broadband - it looks great! You can download at 120kbps, and upload, through your modem at a hefty 45kbps - and it only costs £1200 to install and £120 a month!

Problem is, we need to Upload at high speed - 20MB of data takes around 2 hours to upload...

The pace of life is slower in the country - much slower!

[Guest Paul [MVP]]

I've just ordered Silvermead Satellite Broadband (2MB Downstream, upstream using my existing ISDN Line).

I have heard mixed reports about the service, but since it is being funded by a grant from RABBIT (the Remote Area BroadBand Inclusion Trial), i'm not too fussed...

I'll report on my findings when it's installed!

P

[Guest siu99spj]

Mono is right, Telewest / Blueyonder does not offer its services in areas where NTL is available.

Weird. I can get either along my street. Not that I do, landlord would personally kill me if I moved off BT or ignored that round metal thing attached to the side of my flat!

So I'm stuck with BT broadband (Strangely through some German servers) and Satellite TV (or at least the free channels on Satellite TV, plus digital versions of 1-5).