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Interested in lobbying BT for Broadband access?
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us!
Monday 15th December
ADSL guide News Summary
BT has announced that it is to evaluate two long reach broadband evaluations
in Milton Keynes starting in mid January 2004. The full report is on
ADSLguide.
My Inbox
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Following the note put through my door today I thought I should let you
know that Broadband is alive and kicking in Joules Court, Shenley Lodge.
Until recently my neighbour had it, but I was 'out of range' just a few
doors away.
I have been on broadband for a couple of weeks now, my line was upgraded
within a couple of days of applying for it.
Good luck with your campaign for the rest of MK.
Steve, Shenley Lodge |
| Nick, we have just received your leaflet re broadband in
Shenley lodge. I can assure you that we have full speed broadband access
at our home in Shenley Lodge provided by British Telecom. We have been
fortunate to have had the access for over 1 year now with only the
occasional hiccup.
If you require any further information please e-mail.
Regards
Martin
[I emailed Martin:
I wonder which road you are on? I've had similar positive reports
from Silicon Court.
There are 12 residents on the Paxton Crescent side of the estate that cannot
get Broadband! (And they're within 2km of the exchange at Emerson Valley!)]
We're on Rutherford Gate, pretty sure this is not the Emerson Valley
exchange, but the one in Fishermead. Paxton Crescent is at the opposite end
of where we are on Shenley Lodge, whilst we are quite close to Silicon
Court.
Martin, Shenley Lodge |
I am one of the lucky one's who has a Broadband connection
to our house in Shenley Lodge, but on trying to get a 2nd line we were told
that our BT line is to far away from the exchange.....strange or what?
Paula, Shenley Lodge |
This morning I received your Broadband leaflet, I'm a
resident of Joules Court, Shenley Lodge. Excellent someone is making effort
resolve a frustrating situation.
Obviously I have joined your group, from the website. I'm a Director of
Worldwide Communications Inc., a USA operation, and Sales Manager for a
Global VSAT network provider, with over 16 years experience in the Telco
sector.
Having been in Milton Keynes for over 10 years now, I have myself looked
into the interesting telecoms infrastructure in place, and have additional
input for your cause, which I thought I'd take the time to send.
Milton Keynes has always had telephony circuit issues, mainly because there
was not enough cable (twisted pair copper) installed for the amount of
properties developed (mainly domestic not commercial). Pre-broadband, if you
required multiple telephony circuits to the house, e.g. a voice line, fax
line, and an Internet connection (standard dial-up), there was an issue that
2 or 3 of these circuits, although independent telephone lines, would not
operate simultaneously. The reason, not enough cable, so separate lines were
multiplexed (shared) during peak times.
Then along came Broadband, of which ADSL is the most prevalent option. Most
"older" areas of Milton Keynes are serviced by the Bradwell Abbey Exchange,
cable runs from which stretch the length and breadth of the Town, certainly
exceeding the approved operating distance of ADSL for some areas. Point of
interest is that Tiscali ISP services/call centre office in Great Linford,
has no wired broadband functionality due to cable run issues!. Kingston
Communications, in Shenley Wood, however does, they installed their own
cable run from the exchange.
Which brings me nicely onto the quote NTL made to yourselves about being
unable to dig up the road. Rubbish! Firstly NTL "bought" the Milton Keynes
network from MKTV, which was owned by BT. However BT still own the lines,
hence why you can have NTL (or any other telco vendors) voice call plan,
which you pay them for, but you also get the quarterly bill from BT for the
line rental only. Since Telco deregulation, many companies can offer cheaper
calls than BT, but not many can afford to re-cable areas of the country.
Kingston, as an example, have their own fibre backbone throughout the UK
which links major towns BT exchanges together, however the run from the
exchange to the premises is BT owned (back to the dual bill scenario).
However some companies, are cash rich enough to re-cable regions and offer
consumers choice. Telewest is one such company, they have re-cabled vast
areas in and around Bristol, and provide their own voice, video and data
circuits direct to premises, providing a greater coverage in than the
previous BT installation. This was the plan of NTL when they first procured
the MK network, however their financial difficulties, and Chapter 11, forced
cutbacks.
I can shed further light onto the fibre issue in Monkston. Typical (early)
fibre cabling was from the local exchange to the locale, or region of
premises. This fibre was then connected to copper to be wired to the
individual premises, as and when built. It is unlikely that the capacity of
the fibre to the locale would ever be exceeded, and cost effective to just
run copper from a fibre serving exchange to a new premises than dig up the
roads and expand on the copper runs from the exchange to the locale (some
new developments have fibre from the exchange to the locale, then split
fibre straight to the property, although not in MK to my knowledge)
Provisioning of ADSL from an ADSL switch over fibre to the locale, than
converting the signal to run over twisted pair copper to the premises is
technically viable. However, commercially it isn't, the cost of the
equipment and time is too high. [Indeed. Cisco and Fujitsu make the kit,
by BT aren't rolling out any more TPON. Training up engineers is another
reason I've been given for not going down this route.]Congratulations
on ADSL enabling Monkston, however, most other areas in Milton Keynes,
Shenley Lodge for one, will need either cable re-routing back to the
existing exchange, or to a new exchange, both of which incur costs in
digging up roads etc. Areas of "older estates" which are recently being
developed will probably have ADSL capability, as they will be connected to a
nearer (in cabling terms) exchange. As I'm sure
your aware the
lobbying groups seen on the BT website are to have the local exchanges
upgraded to ADSL enabled, and not re-routing of cables.
Anyway, I hope I haven't bored you, and would interested in knowing how your
progressing with this.
Best of luck, and would be willing to assist when and where I can.
Mark, Shenley Lodge |
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Just to let you know Shenley Lodge has Broadband access!
Works really well.
Happy days.
Kevin, Shenley Lodge [Not all Shenley Lodge residents are so cheery!] |
First of all well done for doing what you are doing.
I live in Giffard Park and have broadband via Tiscali.
I hope to be moving in with my girlfriend on Shenley Lodge in the new year.
To my utter horror, when I enquired with BT what it is I need to do to get
my connection moved, they informed me that Shenley Lodge is too far from the
exchange! This was about 2 months ago. They told me they were running some
tests to see if they can provide a service in the area and told me to ring
back at the end of November for the results. Typically when I rung back the
fact that I had called at the beginning of the month was not logged on their
system & the person I was speaking to had no Idea about these 'tests' !
Marvellous I thought, the very idea of going back to 56k makes me shudder.
If there is anything I can do to help please do not hesitate to contact
me.
Well done.
Regards
Bob, soon to be in Shenley Lodge |
| I live in Nash just West of Milton Keynes and am on the Shenley Church End exchange,
but too far from it to receive Broadband apparently. Apparently the Shenley
Church End exchange is BB enabled but we're 9km from it by road - too far.
The cable must go via Birmingham and back! A neighbour for one has just
splashed out on a BT (small business) satellite BB service. It can support 4
users. He asked if any of the others in our courtyard (5 total including me
and him) would be interested in sharing it as four subscribers would cut
down the cost for all of us but the other 3 were not that interested (it was
still more expensive than a normal BB service) and with just 2 of us it was
too expensive for me so he went ahead alone.
I don't know about how the rest of the village is doing. I've only lived
here just over 12 months and we're not in the village centre.
Can the MK BB association help in any way, or am I just too far out and give
up?
Thanks.
Rosemary, Nash |
I am very frustrated with the standard 56k connection and
unfortunately I can not get broadband due to being on the Bradwell abbey
exchange, I would also be interested in the
BT Long Reach Technical Evaluation.
Malcolm, Walnut Tree |
|
One of my neighbours has Broadband. We are both connected to the
"Bradwell Abbey" Exchange. When I apply with BT, or any other ISP, I am
told that I am too far away from Bradwell Abbey. I understand that 250
signatures of intended broadband users are needed for it to be set up in an
area. We can only get this by knocking on peoples doors but I find this
intrusive, Can't we get something published in the local paper. I find the
Telegraph (Tuesday) can be helpful regarding broadband. Owen, Pennyland |
Although I do have BB here, I have had so much trouble with
BT that I want to support you.
For instance, BT sold me Home Highway for 1 year and less than 7 months
later enable Broadband in Walton Park. To say I was unhappy would be an
understatement! Yes Broadband bought out my contract, but I had based my IT
purchases on connection speed and therefore was left with an unsuitable PC
(since replaced by me).
Anyway, you have my support and if there is anything I can do to assist -
used to work for MKC. I know several people there, including the CEO.I
also know a few people at EP.
Good luck to you and do keep in touch.
Very best regards,
Ross, Walton Park |
| I note from your email that Richard has dropped leaflets
into Walton Park and you now have 14 members. I have some questions and
would be grateful for some initial feedback.
If I wanted to get Broadband into Walton Park
1, Will it happen? [Yes - if you want it hard enough!]
2, How many residents need to show an interest before the BT would even be
interested? By interest I assume each interested resident needs to get onto
the net and register with there telephone number. Does this registration
mean they have to take on Broadband if BT make it available? or they can say
NO! [BT don't track the demand in our
situation.
If they did, they would be informing everybody directly what's going on;
they would not be relying on the MK Broadband Action Group to disseminate
information.]
3, I would be prepared to canvass in my neighbourhood if it will make a
difference. [Thanks. Currently we leaflet, but canvassing may be an
option next year. Our current plan is to get the membership numbers up. This
will embarrass BT and NTL into doing something!]
Many Thanks
Bhavesh, Walton Park |
| I was on my laptop the other day with wireless networking
enabled, and I was automatically connected to a netgear network and
automatically assigned an IP address. It allowed me to connect to the
internet. Curious to see what this was, I checked the connection speed on
ADSL guide and found out it was a 512k bb connection.
Surely this can't be too far away from my house if only a couple of doors
away??
Regards
[I think it would be amusing to give out the address, but I won't.] |
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