Campaign for Broadband Internet Access across Northavon
Steve Webb at the Thornbury telephone exchange 2003 I
am supporting several grassroots campaigns for BT to upgrade local
telephone exchanges to allow residents to access “broadband”
internet connections. At present, many people with home computers use their ordinary
telephone line to dial up to the internet or send e-mails. For anyone
who uses the internet regularly or tries to work from home, it can be
very frustrating to sit watching a computer painstakingly downloading
information. Broadband telephone connections can be 20 times faster than a
traditional phone line, and can make working from home a real option for
many people. Access to broadband internet depends on where you live.
Unless you live in a cabled area, the only parts of Northavon
where telephone exchanges have been enabled for broadband are
Almondsbury and Yate/Sodbury. This
is clearly unacceptable and a campaign has been launched to persuade BT
to upgrade the remaining exchanges in the area. BT has set targets for
the number of people who need to register their interest in different
areas, as follows: * Thornbury: 250 people * Winterbourne (including Frampton Cotterell): 300 * Pilning (including Severn Beach and parts of Easter Compton):
350 * Abson (serving Wick and Pucklechurch): 250 I am delighted to say that both Thornbury and Abson have now reached their targets and will be enabled for Broadband later in 2003! It is also possible to register interest for areas that have not yet
been set targets, and it encourages BT to allocate targets to them.
Go to http://www.bt.com/broadband/
for more information on the number of people who have registered in
your area, on how to register your own interest, or even set up a new
campaign group. Two local campaign groups have already been set up in Thornbury and
Frampton/Winterbourne: * Matt Morgans has created
www.thornbury.uk.com/broadband * Chris Haskins has created
www.broadband4winterbourne.co.uk You can also visit www.absonbroadband.org for an update on the Abson campaign (NB: site no longer active) I very much welcome the steps that are being made towards making
broadband technology more widely available in Northavon, and am actively
supporting these campaigns. |
