UK Villages Start Thinking that Broadband is Their Birthright

Broadband services have not yet reached Hambleden valley. Internet users there have lost hope in getting a reasonable broadband internet connection. Cannot blame them if they felt they have been left out and term their plight as “preposterous”.

The southern part of the valley consisting of Medmenham, Hambleden, Pheasants Hill and Mill End are the areas where service have not reached so far. These areas are said to be a few of the left out ‘not spots’ across Britain. In parliament MP Paul Goodman had brought up this matter as Buckinghamshire country’s councilor Bob Woollard blamed BT for not taking any positive measures to address this matter. At the same time Woollard have also given a written complaint to Sir Michael Rake, chairman of BT Group plc.

The villagers of the region meanwhile, set up a committee called Hambleden Valley Broadband and a discussion was held between the committee and BT last year. During the meeting BT revealed that, to bring broadband service to the country they should raise a fund above GBP 200,000. A service is predicted close in time through company Village Networks. According to a relevent deal, household broadband will be accessible if they were ready to raise GBP 25,000. Subsequently, a GBP 5,000 have been pledged by Buckinghamshire Country council towards it.

A resident of Hambleden valley Peter Riley aged 69 is a business consultant that still uses dial up internet connection for his business dealings. He said that it was the most frustrating thing and at times he felt like hurling a brick at his computer. It is indeed – quoting his expression – “preposterous and a disgrace” that he is unable to carry out common tasks such as booking flight tickets and downloading his grand children’s photos. He also added that the Village Networks scheme was the only chance available, for the success of which they were currently going with a begging bowl around the village.

Councilor Woollard opined that areas like Hambleden being left out without a broadband service clearly sounded ridiculous. Particularly when some people did business, a few worked from home and above all students needed broadband service to perform their homework research. He further pointed out that BT should wake up to offer fresh as well as prudent ideas that should give a better answer than just saying pay two hundred thousand pounds and you can have it.

On the other hand, Emma Littlejohn spokesperson of BT said that they could understand the frustration of the people and they were trying their best to find a solution that is viable, to provide the broadband service of the broadband provider in the area. She added that for the time being they were trialling the much promising broadband enabling technology known as BET at ten spots in the country and more over, Sir Michael Rake, BT’s chairman was trialling BET at his home.

At the same time, the residents of the village can be content that there is at least someone like the MP Paul Goodman that supported their campaign for broadband. He was found to be quiet sympathetic towards the villagers’ need of the hour and his feelings reflect in his saying that broadband had become an essential service like electricity, gas or water.

It is also a reality that there are many more of such broadband internet notspots in the United Kingdom that seriously required attention of the authority. The government’s Universal Broadband plan that come under the wider Digital Britain programme had been visualised mainly to tackle such problems. Under this scheme, BT, as the prominent fixed-line broadband supplier in the country is supposed to shoulder the duty all by its own. However, it is also interesting to note that the Conservatives have claimed that, according to their scheme of things, it should be a comprehensive approach participating all the UK ISPs, and not just an only-BT scheme.