P-05-793 Hi speed broadband to Llangenny
village
– Correspondence from the Petitioner to the Committee,
02.01.18
Thank you for your
email
I appreciate that
Welsh Government cannot prescribe which properties are connected
and in what order.
However, I would
make a number of points:
- Despite this being
a public contract and the connections being paid for by the public,
it is impossible to get any accurate and truthful picture from BT
about their plans and timescales. I have personally been advised by
as BT director, through our Assembly member and on the phone to the
call centre of three different dates; the end of November (past),
the end of December (past) and the end of January. Kirsty Williams
was advised 5 months from mid October. None of the promises so far
have been kept and there is no sign of any future timescales being
met. Welsh Government should ensure that BT are accountable to the
public for their performance under this contract and are providing
reliable and accurate information.
- The Welsh
Government contract should be targeted on improving the service to
those villages which are receiving the worst low speed broadband
including our own. By way of examples, we have GCSE students in the
village who have to go to friends’ houses to do their
homework because the low speed broadband signal is so bad; a pub
that cant take card payments because the signal is so bad and they
are embarrassed and have to send customers home promising to do a
bank transfer for the cost of their meals; farmers who cant fill in
documentation for the Government on line because the signal drops
out before it is completed (and who face fines for late returns); a
woman who has to take holiday because the signal is too bad to log
on to her employer’s server. I am a coordinator of the Brecon
Mountain Rescue Team and have to run rescues from home using the
internet and I need a reliable service to do so.
Across the
village, our broadband speeds are shocking. My phone can measure a
signal as slow as 10kb/s (yes kilobytes!) and at times the signal
has dropped below 5 kb/s meaning it records as 0.0 on the phone.
That’s slower than the old dial up speed and too slow to
download emails let alone carry out any other sort of
transaction.
I would urge the
Committee to support our petition and urge Welsh Government to hold
BT accountable for sorting out the broadband signal
Many
thanks
Duncan
Forbes