Broadband black hole in West Wiltshire

Written by Duncan Hames and published in Letter to the editor of the Wiltshire Times on Fri 15th Aug 2003

It's good to see local councils and the RDA getting behind the campaign for broadband in Wiltshire (Broadband offers life in the fast lane, Wiltshire Times, 1/8/03).

Cllr Duncan Hames wants to see the end of BT's rationing of Broadband availability.

However, it is disappointing that this initiative does not appear to have raised BT's ambitions about the number of telephone exchanges it plans to convert for broadband ­ instead focusing on take-up where it is already planned to be available.

There are currently no BT exchanges offering broadband between Trowbridge, Taunton and Salisbury.

BT's target for availability in Wiltshire is not much more than the proportion of west Wiltshire households that live in our five towns.

I certainly don't want to see the digital divide fall between these towns and the parishes of west Wiltshire, and neither do my neighbours attempting to get BT to convert the exchange that covers Holt, Broughton Gifford, Staverton and Hilperton.

These public bodies should use their funding and influence to bring BT's rationing of broadband to a swift end, and not just to provide them with free promotion where broadband is already available.