Broadband in Rural Areas of Caithness [Archive]

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sgc

06-Jan-05, 15:30

Now that Thurso, Wick and a number of the other larger towns are on the broadband map, everything appears to have gone quite on the push to get the service to all of Caithness!

Does anybody know of any initiatives which are currently ongoing to try and rectify this situation?

Dali

06-Jan-05, 15:59

As far as i know everywhere else has a date for an install. You should be able to sign up on bt site now for your area.

webmannie

06-Jan-05, 17:03

Not everywhere is getting it.

Installations depend on the economics of supply/demand. If your local area is not highly populated/ very remote then a 'community initiative' would need to be started. It would be easier to get funding from public agencies.

It is just not economic for any local company to pay to enable an exchange, believe me we have investigated. BT have a caveat that defeats the point, if you are successful then they can take over the installation!

You can check if you're area is going to be enabled @ http://www.samknows.com

Interestingly BT deems the following scottish exchanges unviable

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/regleague.php?status=2&region=1&direction=DESC&order=prereg

If you aren't going to be enabled and you would sign up to a minimum contract of at least a year then post details here. I know a company that is 'interested' in entering the UK marketplace and this information would be useful to them.

Useful information would be

Location (please do not post full address), if yes to minimum and if you would help recruit neighbours

sgc

06-Jan-05, 19:12

Webmannie,

I would have no poblem signing up for a year contract, provided of course that rates are comparable. My own location is Reay and I would be prepared to try and get others to sign up. In fact the majority of the 90 signatures in the days of the pre-registration scheme, I obtained by going from door to door, so I know that there are a lot of people in Reay who would be very interested

webmannie

06-Jan-05, 19:34

SGC,

Can you confirm that the Reay exchange building has had an extension built recently?

sgc

06-Jan-05, 20:07

I'll have a look tomorrow and reply

zagor

06-Jan-05, 21:00

I have checked a Bt site and halkirk is supposed to be enabled on the 26th of january haven't heard of any others yet.

daviddd

06-Jan-05, 22:42

What happens once, say, Halkirk is enabled on 26 Jan - do you just ask your internet provider to switch over to Broadband? I think you get a new modem thingie d'ye not? How would I know it has actually been enabled?

webmannie

07-Jan-05, 00:48

Daviddd,

If you are happy with your existing provider and their broadband costs are ok, call or email them now and ask to be upgraded when your exchange is enabled, i'd confirm that the modem is free though. If you are not happy then check out the deals onhttp://www.adslguide.org

I changed provider cause my original one didn't do 1mb, signed up with PIPEX and everything arrived before the conversion. There used to be an extra £50 to pay BT if you wanted to upgrade from ISDN, not sure if it is still enforced.

halkirk1

07-Jan-05, 11:43

sgc

07-Jan-05, 13:52

"Can you confirm that the Reay exchange building has had an extension built recently"

Its had a new coat of paint, but the basic building is the same as its been for the last few years

Green_not_greed

07-Jan-05, 16:07

I'm also at Reay. Absolutely gobsmacked that BT consider it non-viable with Thurso, Dounreay and Forss already with high speed broadband connections. Please provide details of the company that "may" enable exchanges.

Thanks

captain chaos

07-Jan-05, 18:29

[quote="Green_not_greed"] Dounreay and Forss already with high speed broadband connections.

You say Dounreay and forss but that is only the UKAEA site and New Park Buisness park I pressume. Both of whom paid to have fibre optic links installed.
Not the surrounding area.

daviddd

07-Jan-05, 21:57

I'm in Halkirk and expect the exchange to be upgraded on the 26th of Jan.

I've tried Wanadoo and NTL over the past 3 days and both say the exact same thing.

Until the exchange has actually been upgraded you can't register for broadband. Once the exchange has been upgraded BT inform all companies of this and you can then register for broadband.

Best bet is to wait until your areas date for connection and then try and get your broadband activated.

This is what Wanadoo and NTL have told me.

Regards.Ok Cheers. I'm with Wanadoo too so I guess I'll hang on a bit longer. I don't know if the connections going to be that fast as I'm 5 miles from Halkirk, but it may be a bit quicker and at least I'll (hopefully) be able to take telephone calls at the same time.

William

08-Jan-05, 02:18

does any one know when reay and the surrounding area will be getting broadband??

Rheghead

08-Jan-05, 09:44

does any one know when reay and the surrounding area will be getting broadband??

It seems we're not getting it.

captain chaos

08-Jan-05, 11:16

The following was taken from the Scottish Executive website. [disgust]
Reay will have broadband by the end of 2005 :lol: :lol:

Broadband for all Scotland
01/06/2004

The Executive will step in to ensure every community in Scotland has access to affordable broadband by the end of 2005, it was announced today.

This means the more remote and rural parts of Scotland will be able to access the vital technology - even where it is not feasible to provide broadband commercially.

Mr Wallace said:

"We said in our Partnership Agreement that we wanted every community in Scotland to have access to broadband and we are delivering on this.

"The Executive has made it clear that economic growth is our top priority. By providing all communities in Scotland with access to broadband technology and the huge benefits it brings, we are putting in place an important business tool to facilitate this growth.