Why have we been left out of upgrade? (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Why have we been left out of upgrade?

12:00pm Thursday 17th December 2009 in News By Emily Roberts

From left: Tim Robinson, Jason Rivers, John Herring, Alistair Maxwell

PLANS to roll out super-fast broadband across Basingstoke have missed out some of the people who suffer most with slow Internet access.

While BT Openreach’s upgrade is good news for many, some who have campaigned for faster access will not benefit – and they are very unhappy about that.

Tim Robinson, 46, from Belmont Heights, Hatch Warren, started his own business at home after being made redundant from Motorola in August. But he is not in line to benefit from the upgrade.

He said: “We are incredibly angry and frustrated. I’m trying to start up an Internet telecom business. Without the Internet, my business fails.”

When Basingstoke was built, telephone exchange cabinets were installed in the middle of the town. But when newer housing estates such as Chineham and Hatch Warren were built, they were too far away from the cabinets to receive adequate broadband access.

Mr Robinson said: “Logic and common-sense would dictate that one would update cabinets in the areas already well-known for poor broadband, like Hatch Warren, Beggarwood and Chineham. But no, they seem to be installing shiny new cabinets in areas that already have reasonable coverage. What sense does that make?”

Jason Rivers, 25, from Cleeve Road, Popley, also lives in a slow speed Internet zone. He said: “I work from home 30 per cent of the time and the slow speed is a problem. I’m an IT manager so having fast Internet access is essential.

“It takes two hours to do a 30-minute job.”

John Herring, 42, also from Belmont Heights, Hatch Warren, is a network security engineer but is forced to work from his office in Bracknell for much of the time because poor Internet access at his home means he cannot carry out his job efficiently.

He said: “Where they are giving faster access, people already have reasonable broadband, and they have an alternative of Virgin Media. There’s no reliable broadband service in our area. We feel a bit cheated.”

Alistair Maxwell, 39 from Clere Gardens, Chineham, is a technical specialist for Sony and also lives in a ‘not spot’ area of Basingstoke.

He said: “What I would like is for BT to give a clear idea of what their intention is. If they are going to do the rest of Basingstoke, and I can be told that’s going to happen in the future, then I can hold on.”

A spokeswoman for BT Openreach said: “We can understand the frustration of those people who will not be attached to cabinets which are being upgraded.

“Openreach has to make decisions based on a number of factors, including the topography of the network, demand from Internet service providers and commercial viability and investment.”