BT names first 29 exchanges for fibre rollout

40Mb - Hah!

Well, here I am in La Madeleine, just north of Lille, in the land of red wine and more kinds of cheese than you can shake a stick at. 12Mbits over ADSL2+ (attenuation something like 120dB!). Fibre available in the area, 100Mb/s down for 40 euros a month.

Yah boo sucks to you!

Paris. Because. Why else?

crap copper

you can have 10g or 40g fibre to the cabinet but of the last 100 meters to the property is still crappy shared and thrice sliced bellwire then you're still going to get crap broadband.

I cant wait until 5 companies try to cram their active kit into the street cabs, the active ones

are already noisy and hot. now they'll be worth smashing open to nick the contents.

a new job opportunity for those in the poorer areas?

@Colin Miller

Thanks Lionel,

The check-by-postcode is here http://www.samknows.com/broadband/checker2.php

Its a lot bloody colder in Canada

Briggus (translation Brighouse) isn't all that bad, nor cold for that matter.

I also used to live in the Calder Valley - Lancky side of Halifax as a matter of fact before moving o'er the pond.

In the Sowerby area, we just had 512kb max because of the distance to the exchange through LLU.

For us 1Mb or 2Mb would have been quite nice. I guess that is why they are piloting in this kind of area - there is quite high demand but everyone is so spread out compared to the city.

Can we have a cloth cap icon please?

Bangalore exchange?

Every BT office I've been to in the last 2 years had more of our 'offshore' cousins than UK workers.

With the >10000 agency staff cuts in the UK this year, I have a suggestion:-

Perhaps they should change the name to IT and install 21CN in India?

Otherwise I can confirm there are many contractors on the bench in the UK who could do the work these chaps are shipped over to do.

Smell of cooked books abounds

I can't help but notice the smell of cooked books in all of this.

Did a speed test on BT broadband and it seems that BT's average is 2.18 Mb/s

Concluded: shock! horror! If BT do not do anything then they will have met the 2 Mb/s target and, of course, bonuses all round if you please?

The roll out areas neglect neglected areas and shock! horror! the roll out areas have lots of cables in there anyway? Flummoxed the public again chaps, bonuses all round if you please?

Why not 50 Mb/s by 2010, for each household irrespective of city/rural using a combination of delivery methods?

Where's the verve? The vie? The excitement?

All i smell is cooked books (again).

@Bangalore Exchange?

Perhaps those of us who work with the people you so offensively euphemise as "our 'offshore' cousins" find it a more pleasant and productive experience than dealing with racist ingrates who do nothing but whine about their entitlements.

My experience of BT-based agency contractors (having been one in my time) was that while they were very happy to take the money (although it was never enough, was it?) and the added security of being a disguised employee, they spent most of their time badmouthing the company and whining about what little work they were asked to do. On one very notable occasion two had to be sacked because a fight broke out. One contractor's snoring was disturbing the guy who was trying to play a game in the corner of the same office.

Glad to see the back of them. I value my Indian colleagues far more than those British dipsticks.

OFCOM

Presumably the taxpayer funded OFCOM will now check to see how many taxpayers are still without even a basic broadband service and decide not to do anything.

Not that it matters: all this rush for speed is truly sad.

Where we are, there's no connection to the exchange because the elastic can't stretch that far and the only engineers we ever see in the streets are employed on lighting the gas lamps at dusk and turning 'em off at dawn around the same time as the knockerupper man comes tapping on our window.

It's grim oop norf.

@markie

You're missing the point.

I'm not racist and made no racist comments, unlike your generalisation of IT contractors. No doubt the standard of contractor has been raised since you left BT, as the one's I worked with were professional and competent.

My point is that while in a recession, wouldn't it be nice for a company like British Telecommunications to give work to British companies/consultants? Obviously this could be applied to many UK companies who continue to offshore.

Most of the offshore people I work with are extremely talented and I value their friendship as well as their skill set.

Hopefully they'll continue to keep BT working until the share price goes up enough for BT to want agency staff back again. ;o)

Thanks for sharing your viewpoint though.

@markie

Would just like to add to Bangalore Exchange's comments that all the BT contractors I have come across in my time there have been extremely professional and competent. Good luck to all of you who will be on the outside come next Wednesday and many thanks for all your hard work. You will be missed.

I'm glad that the majority of BT-related debate on this site has always focused on the corporation, and not the people - there's not much any of us can do on a micro level to influence the Phorm debate for example - we are all IT people at the end of the day who work hard to do the best job they can usually in extremely difficult circumstances.

50Mb :p

Yes I joined the speeding Virgin service. But still 50 Megabits thats just rubbish really look at what the Japanese are getting. Ah but Japan is a small Island......!!!!one!!11

Why all the Gripe?

Wasn't it OFCOM who blocked BT investing in infrastructure some 20 odd years ago. So that the fledgling cable compaines could get a foothold?

We would be much further ahead if OFCOM had been on the side of the consumer instead of big business.