FastAsShi*e web site

[jnorris235]

Has anybody any news on faster broadband in our county? Anyone seen any engineers working? Please advise because I can get no detailed answers from the Cabinet member or from BT. They even admit they have no plan yet, and still promise certain exchanges will be done in 2014. More including letters and replies on jonnorris.co.uk

[Bill Thomas]

We only got infinity in Hereford last year Jon and that is not in all area's. If you live in outside of the city it must be a real nightmare, what speeds do you get and where are you?

[jnorris235]

Infinity? As a mathematician what definition do they use for that service then? I live at Much Birch. Regularly off line for several hours, sometimes down to 46kbps. Never been able to watch a YouTube video without waiting for buffering, usually 4-5 minutes. But, why have they not got a detailed plan of where they are working and what is next? We've had ten years of surveys, online requests as to who gets it next and so on. Then they get the national monopoly and ..... Transparency? Huh! Bad day at the office for me, sorry, after reading the endless misery in the HT!

[ragwert]

It always amazes me why they roll out Infinity broadband in big cities first smallest last.It's as if we small City and Country bumpkin folk are some sort of lepers.
Finally had Infinity2 installed six months ago and my speed is around 50mb/sec.That in relation to other European Countries is laughable with a French friend of mine telling me he gets speeds near 1 tb

[twowheelsgood]

I'm in the City with a rock solid 37Mb fibre optic connection that hasn't varied or dropped once since it was connected 14 months ago, so it can be done. I said at the time Jarvis was carping on about the Council spending £10m to get better broadband that I couldn't see what it had got to do with the Council - leave it to market forces. My view hasn't changed, in fact, in light of cutbacks left, right and centre there is even more of a case not to be involved. Do you know we're paying senior officers for jaunts to Europe for meetings about broadband? BT on their own are bad enough, add this Council into the mix and nothing is ever going to happen. Its for central  Government and private business to sort - this Council needs to get back to basics and start digging us of the total mess we're in.

[ragwert]

John.I think you would be much better off getting a dongle with speeds as low as yours

[jnorris235]

I thought my language was bad! Me, wife, two kids, iPads and a computer ... One dongle ain't enough. But if I couldn't trust BT to deliver I might have to look at a dish for £25 a month, true. Anyway, out in Much Birch I have 2g, not 3G so a dongle won't work either. Have asked where the 6 new mobile masts are going in the county, but again, nobody knows.. One in Ewyas Harold so far though.

[flamboyant]

Cllr Norris, Natalia Silver is the head of the Broadband project (another of Geoff Hughes protégés) who knows absolutely nothing about ICT but hey ho! Nothing unusual there, Geoff likes her and that's good enough for our Council! I hear she's just taken over as Director of Customer Services and Libraries and has been very well rewarded for her trouble with a huge salary and Directors title! (Just when Cabinet have been led to believe they are thinning out the Directors they slip one under the radar!) Give her a call she will be only to happy to bring you up to speed! But don't expect any straight answers.... lol TwoWheelsGood is right we should have kept hold of our ten million and left the market to take care of the Broadband, the only person gaining anything from our involvement in this project is Natalia Silver! Ker-ching!!

[Colin James]

I struggled for years with Broadband, my story and struggle back then even ended up as a feature in The Times but 10 years later I have Infinity and speeds 50mb + I could not manage on such low speeds Jon 

My speeds this morning while downloading an Apple update via wifi, I can achieve better speeds via ethernet cable obviously

 

[jnorris235]

Rude words are all that come to mind! How much do you pay for that. I bet you've even downloaded films and watched iplayer! Still, annoying that the cabinet member doesn't seem to know what's been done or being done, will dig more. Main A49 and no cable tv, 3G, or proper broadband. Think we're being stuffed? Garway are getting it before us!

[Biomech]

I wouldn't be able to function on that, literally.
I have 50meg Fiber, £39/month as it's uncapped, unlimited, unthrottled, unshaped and I've had some extra tweaks put on :)

[twowheelsgood]

My 37Mb fibre with BT runs at £18pm (inc evening and weekend calls) and that gives me 40GB which is enough, just. I work from home and, as Biomech, couldn't survive on a slow speed - even 5Mb was a struggle. If I lived in the country, I'd find a way of getting it, I wouldn't expect or rely on the council to sort it. A dish at £25 seems good value - especially as it should give you 20Mb - whats the problem? 

[Jonny]

I have spotted new fibre cabinets going up in bartestree/lugwardine, marden and weobley. there are probably others around the county so progress is being made.

[Colin James]

Rude words are all that come to mind! How much do you pay for that. I bet you've even downloaded films and watched iplayer! Still, annoying that the cabinet member doesn't seem to know what's been done or being done, will dig more. Main A49 and no cable tv, 3G, or proper broadband. Think we're being stuffed? Garway are getting it before us!

I downloaded '12 Days A Slave' today in 4 minutes I pay BT £26 per month plus line rental, you get BT Sport included with that.

[Biomech]

My £39 includes my line rental.
I do **** A LOT of data for work though, which is why I need the speed and uncapped package. 

I remember downloading ONE mp3, about 3.5mb, used to take 15 minutes :O

 

Satellite connections can be good for rural areas, not ideal for gaming though as there is a delay (unless its changed now)

[jnorris235]

Dish is the answer. Just been waiting year after year on promises from BT and now seems so close! Jonny - you got more info than BT knew! Cheers all.

[Jonny]

If you do get fibre in your area you still might not be able to get it at your house. Depends how far away you are from your green BT cabinet, more than 1.5km as the cable runs and you can forget it.

[Alex]

My mate lives in Kingstone and speeds are terrible there and this is 2014!

[jnorris235]

Did wonder why the council was handing money to BT, but it was the deal to do matched funding. As a punter I was desperate to get BT to actually do something now they got the UK monopoly. As a Councillor, I agree it should be market funding because grants mess up the competition and stifle development in many cases. Will dig, great for your support, and more to learn about Natalya. You give me the bullets and I'll fire them!

[Denise Lloyd]

Allpay is the way lovely local company great speed

[Colin James]

 

 

Graham Powell â€@cabbagegrower  2h

Commercial and contract roll out means nearly 40,000 premises in Herefordshire have access to great Broadband - need to reach remote corners

 

[twowheelsgood]

One of those remote corners being Rotherwas - according to the Cllr "work has started, or is about to start, in Rotherwas."

[Pete.g]

Hi All

 

Be gentle with me I am new ! I have responded to Graham Powell via Twitter, how come Rotherwas is a remote area ? Pitiful speeds little better than dial up , and it's Herefordshires premier business area ! My home in Dinedor, just over the hill from Rotherwas and with a great view of the city, has a BT speed of less than 1 Mb, using Allpay and with favourable weather I can get 5Mb, however this is as Allpay quaintly term it "contentious" thus the more customers they get the poorer my signal gets !

 

I also pointed out to Councillor Powell that at the launch of Fastershire we were promised a 97% coverage of Herefordshire within the already agreed Goverment / Hfd Council funding ! I have asked the question , where has the money gone ?

 

Regards to all from the remote outback of Dinedor

 

Pete

[Colin James]

Hi All

 

Be gentle with me I am new ! I have responded to Graham Powell via Twitter, how come Rotherwas is a remote area ? Pitiful speeds little better than dial up , and it's Herefordshires premier business area ! My home in Dinedor, just over the hill from Rotherwas and with a great view of the city, has a BT speed of less than 1 Mb, using Allpay and with favourable weather I can get 5Mb, however this is as Allpay quaintly term it "contentious" thus the more customers they get the poorer my signal gets !

 

I also pointed out to Councillor Powell that at the launch of Fastershire we were promised a 97% coverage of Herefordshire within the already agreed Goverment / Hfd Council funding ! I have asked the question , where has the money gone ?

 

Regards to all from the remote outback of Dinedor

 

Pete

 

Hi Pete and welcome to HV. 

 

You have my sympathy with the useless broadband speeds that your guys are suffering with, I had this in Belmont for many years, lets hope that they can pull something out of the bag for you sooner rather than later.

[Biomech]

It's an absolute joke that THE business area for Hereford doesn't:

 

A: Have a suitable access roads

B: Have business level internet connections

Yet down the road the speeds are up to around 50Meg 

[Pete.g]

Hi

 

Had a tweet back from Graham Powell, our exchange Holme Lacy is due for upgrade later this year, fastershire however won't commit to that. It is also very poor as has been previously mentioned that Rotherwas has little better than dial up internet connections unless, as some companies I am aware of invest massive sums in their own satellite systems.

 

I was trying to watch a you tube training video for work earlier, I had to give up as the buffering and constant stopping was making sensible and coherent watching impossible.

 

Trying to run a small business with this standard of internet connection is almost becoming impossible.

 

Pete

[Colin James]

From this weeks HT 

SUPERFAST broadband has been switched on at Hereford’s Enterprise Zone today (Thurs).

A collaboration between the Fastershire project and Hereford Enterprise Zone has brought fibre broadband to Rotherwas transforming available internet speeds.

The switch on is just the first stage of an extensive programme of broadband delivery and support for both existing businesses and those moving to the Enterprise Zone at Skylon Park.

 

 

Quote taken from this HT article

[Biomech]

Now if only people can get down the road to use it :P

[jnorris235]

Email to Graham Powell:

 

Nearly two months ago I asked BT where they were working, putting in the Fastershire broadband.

I got this reply:

"Each Future Exchange shows the year it will be delivered. This doesn’t mean that you will necessarily have to wait until the end of that year to benefit from faster broadband. At this stage the exchange area will go through a period of detailed survey work which enables us to plan the network for your area. Once this work has been completed your exchange area will be marked as coming soon and will provide you will a more detailed timescale for delivery of faster broadband for your area.â€

 

I also commented that my local exchange wasn’t on the map, but a new one had appeared with its name in a completely different location.

No response.

 

You’ll forgive my eagerness but if this work is indeed to be completed by 2014, somebody - BT, you, god forbid even the public should know the planned strategy by now?

 

I wrote to you asking, as the Cabinet member in charge, if you knew where they were working.

After all, it is due to be all delivered this year - surely someone knows where the crews are working, and where they will be next.

 

You didn’t know either but offered to put me in touch with Natalya Silver (I hope I have her name right).

I replied on January 29 that i would be obliged to you if you would do that.

I am still waiting for this contact nearly two months later.

 

My broadband speed tonight is 0.18Mb/sec which is a joke, but fairly normal.

Unbelievably the upload speed is higher at 0.28Mb/sec!

 

Questions

I wonder how long each stage takes - detailed survey first - then whatever further stages of planning and delivery there are.

They have in theory been planning upgrades for many many years, so they have told me, so I cannot believe that some more answers are not available!

 

I also wonder that when the exchanges are updated how long it will be before customers get the actual broadband speed promised.

 

Lastly, again - where are they working, on which exchanges - what is the rollout plan, please?

[twowheelsgood]

"A partnership to build a world class broadband network for Herefordshire and Gloucestershire"

 

Really means - just give us the £12m and clear off and don't come back asking silly questions like what do we get for our money and when.