back to article £4.4m gov wad to get all Northern Ireland up to 2 Mbit/s

Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt slapped £4.4m on Northern Ireland's broadband pile today in a move to roll out the tech to the entire country. The NI Executive is tasked with matching that sum of cash in order to reach out to the final 3 per cent of homes and businesses not yet upgraded to faster broadband technology. "Matching …

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  1. James Pickett

    Not so broad

    "a minimum 2 Mbit/s broadband"

    Some of us in rural England would like to see that! Right now, I'm getting 1Mb/s and today's a good day. Perhaps I should write to Mr Spoonerism...

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    2Mb - yeah right

    My exchange in Northern Ireland has been delivering me broadband for the past 8 years, but I still only just get 1Mbit/s, despite being only 9miles from Belfast City Centre.

    Somehow I can't see this additional money making much difference. People without any broadband will probably be able to get access to a land based broadband service, but the current data rates many people get are still very poor.

    It's a pitty the fees paid to BT & co weren't based on the quality of service received. Then perhaps we would all get a much better deal.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      1 MBit? Sheer luxury!

      I get around 0.5 MBit on my standard broadbant, and only 4 miles from the city centre!

      I know someone on the street who is getting 30 from the BT Infinity, and Virgin Media keep putting spam through the letterbox, but they can both go and take a running jump.

      Interestingly, on RTE (Republic of Ireland TV channel) I have seen adverts for satellite broadband for rural areas.

  3. James 51

    I can get to 2mbit on my phone

    If they finish the job, were will the next round of subsidies come from?

  4. James Pickett

    Not so broad

    "It's a pity the fees paid to BT & co weren't based on the quality of service received."

    Ain't that the truth! Rather than making fatuous promises, perhaps ministers could ensure that we get billed according to the service provided, rather than allowing blanket charges for services 'up to xxMb/s' that are never achieved in practice. I could live a lot more happily with my crap BB if the charge was based on actual speed...

  5. Fab De Marco

    Remember the Ratios

    Your could get charged for what gets piped through to your door, but its not just about what speed you get, its your neighbours too.

    If you have a 4mb/s line coming through your could pay x amount but still have slow speeds because you live in an area where everyone is hammering the net at peak times. High contention rations factor in a fair amount and will have an effect on your speed and BT can't punish you just because the spotty youth down the road is downloading the latest Blu-Ray Rip all day.

    In addition to this, some of the speed issues you get could be related to the infrastucture in your house. similarly BT can't very well come in and check this free of charge, it makes bad business sense.

    Proper infrastructure needs to be in place and in ALL areas of the UK. This is a good start, it will take BB speed effecting house prices before anything major is done about it.

    I wonder if estate agents have thought of that.... "This 3 bed Semi offers a lareg entrance hall, en suite bathroom in the master bedroom and at least 20Mb down its BT pipes."

    That Sales talk will probably only work on me

    1. Chris Redpath

      BB Speed would work for me too

      We were thinking about moving last year, and the BB speeds were at least as important as other factors when considering areas.

      You can't get any concrete indication, but you can at least check out the exchange that the house is likely to be connected to on Sam Knows and see what services are available there.

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