Not so broad band

As broadband becomes a utility almost as essential as electricity and water, we are turning into a two-tier society. Never mind the question of whether you can get the speeds of “up to” 8MB promised by the ads. If you don’t live in a built-up area, the question is more likely to be whether you can get broadband at all. As the Prince of Wales has pointed out, whole areas of the country are “broadband deserts”.

Hambledon, near Henley in Oxfordshire is only 35 miles from London but is a “not spot” where residents cannot get broadband, even though it runs to the local exchange. Gary Ashworth, the chairman of Abacus Recruitment, was told by BT that, even though his company rents 1,000 BT lines, he would have to wait 5 years unless he wanted to pay £68,000 for an individual installation.

Then he discovered that one resident of Hambledon DID have broadband, even though he moved there only a year ago. He is Sir Michael Rake, the chairman of BT. When a livid Ashworth discovered this and complained to BT, he was told: “At the moment we are trialling broadband enabling technology (BET) at 10 locations in the UK. We can confirm Sir Michael Rake is trialling BET at his home. The pilot is very small and involves a handful of users at this stage.” Ashworth says:

“It stinks of corruption. The chairman of BT is given preferential treatment over long-serving customers.”

No doubt the company does need to test new technology but what sort of test can it be that involves just one solitary guinea pig in one of the 10 areas? It sounds like utter Zebu to us.

The story also reminded me of the days when I was a financial journalist covering BT’s AGM not long after the company was privatised. A shareholder raised a question about BT’s system of transferring information using modems known as Telecom Gold, something of a misnomer for something so staggingly laborious and complicated. There must have been 40 directors on the stage at Birmingham’s NEC. Cue much embarrassment when it turned out that none of the directors had ever used it!