Monday, 4 October 2010

"I'm Sorry Mrs Weasle but you'll just have to move...."

I have been bereft, alone but not of my own free will. I was cut off, sidelined, unable to contact anyone - well maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration but it comes pretty close to the truth!
Dear old BT have been up to their old tricks again and the world has been cut off from this little haven in Suffolk due to broadband failure: AGAIN!
It's a sort of fame I suppose, to be one of the 2%; the 2% who live in a broadband blackspot but it seems rather silly when BT have their headquarters less than 15 miles away! So if you hear of a demented woman besieging  BT at Martlesham Heath ; it's me. It's got that bad.

Getting broadband in my village really is a hit or miss affair and BT have actually admitted that it is their fault. Their so helpful solution was to tell me if I wanted better connection I should move. I couldn't believe my ears. However the sad fact is my village is unlikely to ever get decent connection purely because it is the only village in the area to have the problem and there are just too few of us to count. Doesn't stop the company from bombarding us all with fliers and telephone calls to get the latest broadband/digital TV connections. What is so horrendous though is that people new to the village actually sign up to them and then spend months, and in some cases years, trying to untangle themselves losing money in the process!
It's really quite simple, the problem is that the cable to the village is too weak to carry a strong enough signal and if that wasn't bad enough part of it is fibreoptic. Broadband connections cannot A) cope with a change of material and B) don't like fibre optics. The village is stuffed although the telphones work, most days...
I thought I had been very clever indeed by opting to get my broadband over the airwaves at more than double the cost as those using more traditional means via a telephone line, but no BT can still get me via the exchange some four miles away, which one of their workmen kindly left open to the rain a few weeks ago rendering me and a few other businesses broadbandless. Because  the company that supplies me with internet access counts as one customer, even though there are about a hundred users relying on it, BT didn't rate the urgency of the problem. Punishment I take it for not sticking with BT's measly intermittant 512MB service.
Oh heck this sounds like a rant when all I wanted to say was I'm sorry for not being around these past few weeks and I have so much to tell you!
Anyway back on line and ever the optimist I'll hold out with BT's promise that they really are trying to get me better connected, though probably not in this lifetime...

9 comments:

Ladybird World Mother said...

I FEEL for you!! How maddening to be one of the 2%. Grrr. Weirdly, was talking to someone a week or so ago who said he had just invested in a company that is going to launch a couple of satellites so that those people without broadband today, that elusive 2% (and thats YOU, Tattie!!) can have it. Will keep you posted. xxxx

Tattieweasle said...

Ladybird World Mother - I do wish they'd hurry up it would be lovely to have relaible broadband!

Spencer Park said...

I'm glad that you're back, however, intermittent it maybe!

Apple Island Wife said...

If it's any consolation, the bastards in Australia aren't any better!!

Tattieweasle said...

Spencer Park - Thank you and when I've sorted BT I'll get round to my spelling too! I knew I'd spelled intermittent wrong....:)
Apple Island Wife - do you think the bastards are related in any way???!!!

Cro Magnon said...

I think the worst thing is to be tempted by promised speed, then to find that in reality it's still as slow as dial-up!!

See it as a bonus when it works, and normal when it doesn't.

Posie said...

How frustrating, glad your back on the airwaves.

diney said...

I feel your frustration - have same prob here and it drives me to insanity some days - I'm surprised the pc hasn't ended up thrown through the window by now.....still time, still time

Tattieweasle said...

Cro Magnon - I actually think that just about sums up my life really treated as a bonus when it works and normal when it doesn't! Love it!
Posie - Long may it last!
diney - exactly there is still time! Watch out Martlesham...

Go on you know you want to...

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