July 2011
Chris Evans, from Nether Stowey, has alerted us to the fact that BT have just announced
that Nether Stowey exchange will be enabled for broadband speeds of up to 24 Mb/s, about 3 times the speed of that currently available.
BT have set the upgrade date for November 2011, saying that work will be completed at the latest by 30th November. The new service should cost you no more than you are paying at the moment for broadband connection, but not all customers will be switched over immediately. It is best to check with your ISP to see how they are dealing with the upgrade. For example, Chris points out, if you are with BT Retail, you will need to renew your contract in order to be swapped over to the new equipment more quickly.
Unfortunately, your maximum speed will very much depend on the distance of your line from the exchange. This means that those living in Over Stowey, Stogursey, Fiddington etc. will not benefit from the full 24 Mb/s. The following link is to an external page that gives a graph showing what speeds you can expect at different distances from the exchange. In no way are we endorsing the ISP that has produced the graph, in fact I'd never heard of them until now - we just don't like breaking copyright by taking other people's images! Link to graph.
The good news for those of you further away from Nether Stowey is that, after the upgrade, even if your maximum speed does not increase by much you should find speeds more consistent with less slow-down at peak times.
At present there have been no announcements from BT about other exchanges in the Quantock area, but we'll let you know as soon as we do.
More Broadband News for Somerset
As we reported last month, Devon & Somerset have been awarded substantial funding from central government towards providing a superfast broadband service within the counties.
The following is an extract from the Executive Summary of the Devon and Somerset Superfast Broadband Plan:
Our Aims and Targets
- deliver 100% broadband coverage by 2015 (reliable, robust and upgradable services above 2Mbps), with a minimum of 85% being superfast broadband (a minimum of 20Mbps) delivered through an open network;
- deliver 50% take-up, providing fairly priced services through at least 10 service providers;
- deliver superfast broadband for all by 2020 and even higher speeds where needed
- increase our GVA by £0.75 billion per annum by 2020 by improving access to markets, enabling improved productivity, strengthening our rural economy, helping small businesses grow, driving inward investment, supporting action to improve skills, tackling displacement to other areas, supporting key growth sectors including the low carbon economy;
- tackle digital exclusion, ensuring rural communities have the same access to services as urban communities;
- deliver a transformation in public service provision, providing faster and more reliable access to better resources and services, including education, adult social care, healthcare and law & order,
- secure the delivery of the Big Society: connecting up our communities and giving them real control over their services.
For more information see www.connectingdevonandsomerset.co.uk
