On Mon, 23 May 2005 21:37:06 +0100, John Rumm
wrote:

MM wrote:

I just had a look at your site. Any quick suggestions for an
alternative to broadband as we cannot get BB here? BT says our
exchange is 'unviable'. Enquiries have shown that we are not likely to
get BB *ever*.

Satellite, I believe, is a possibility? Anything else? BTW NTL Cable
isn't available either.

Satellite is possible but expensive, it can also be a bit of a
dissapointment for some activities like web browsing...

Wi-fi is probably your best bet. You may find there is already coverage
from a "mesh" or net in your locality.

How far are you from somewhere that can get BB? Have you got line of
sight to it?

Don't know about a line of sight (I'll check tomorrow - actually, on
thinking about the route to that location, I don't think there can
be), but I punched in some postcodes from neighbouring hamlets and
*they* do have BB! One is about 1 mile as the crow files, but 2 miles
by road, and the other - I don't know yet, as I have so much to
explore and I haven't got around to it yet.

What grates is the BT BB web site which puffs their coverage as if
there is practically nowhere in the UK that can't get BB, yet we are
just 2.5 hours from London by road.

I did read somewhere on the BT BB site something about Exchange
Activate.... Okay, I've just been to the page in question and this is
what it says:

"With ADSL Exchange Activate, Service Providers buy block capacity - a
minimum of 30 customer broadband connections for three years at an
exchange. BT then enables the exchange for broadband. Service
Providers can buy further 'blocks' of 30 lines as they need them."

Now that suggests that 30 accounts/connections would suffice, although
one would have to commit to three years.

Is ADSL very expensive for BT to put into a local exchange? Why, I
wonder, don't they just fit it everywhere as standard - they make
enough profit overall and then they could just say - Britain is 100%
covered!

MM