North East Lincolnshire broadband campaign features on BBC show Rip Off Britain
BBC 1 TV show Rip Off Britain visited two North East Lincolnshire villages, where slow broadband speeds are causing major problems.
The speeds in Habrough and Stallingborough are so slow that two men have made it their mission to bring about change.
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COME ON, SPEED UP: Paul Manarin, left, assistant principal at Oasis Academy, Immingham, and Tom Horton, student and campaigner, who appeared on the BBC programme Rip Off Britain about their campaign for better broadband in villages. Picture: Rick Byrne
They gained support from local residents and BBC 1 featured them on their programme Rip Off Britain yesterday morning.
Since starting their campaign in April the pair have recently secured an agreement with Virgin Media to install fibre optic cabling in the area which will allow much faster speeds than can currently be offered by BT.
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Campaigner Tom Horton, 19, from Newport Walk, Immingham, said: "In Immingham there are fantastic broadband speeds but in Habrough and Stallingborough this isn't the case.
"Many residents can't even get two megabits per second (mbps) which is supposed to be the government milestone for 2015.
"When he was Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, Jeremy Hunt said that he wanted this country to have the best broadband in Europe but 2mbps is not enough now, let alone in three years.
"A total of £2.6-million was allocated to North and North East Lincolnshire Councils to improve the infrastructure but only nine per cent of that went to our area. We thought that this wasn't fair and the system was biased and we believed we could do a better job.
"We contacted BT and they said that nothing could be done and it wasn't their responsibility to improve the service.
"After this we got in touch with Rip Off Britain and they came and investigated the consumer complaint we made.
"There are people paying for a broadband service but who are receiving very little for their money in terms of the service they get. We are delighted the BBC took interest and helped increase the awareness of the problem.
"We also gained support from the people in the villages and 90 per cent of residents were not happy with their broadband speed and 70 per cent agreed they would change their provider if they could.
"We sent a letter to Virgin Media and they have agreed to make significant investment in the villages and they will be inputting fibre optic cables which means people will be able to access super fast broadband. We are hoping that the work will begin sometime in January 2013."
The broadband project is still in the planning stage but Virgin Media will be visiting both villages.
Head of business development and network expansion, Duncan Watts, added: "We're really excited about the level of demand shown for Virgin Media in the area and we're delighted to confirm that we will be extending our fibre optic network to bring super-fast broadband and next generation TV services to the residents of Haborough and Stallingborough.
"As the project will require significant construction we are currently working through the planning stages and liaising with the local council to seek approvals for the works required and will begin scheduling our roll-out as soon as received."
A spokesman from BT said: "We recognise the frustration felt by broadband customers in Habrough and Stallingborough.
"The government has set aside £530m to help local authorities improve broadband speeds across the UK.
"We would urge residents of these two areas to press their local councillors and ensure their needs are taken into account. BT will seek to bid for any broadband improvement contract, and will engage with the council members in charge of this procurement."
Comments
by labourladie
Wednesday, September 26 2012, 9:45PM
“I have Virgin 20 Mb. broadband and so do many of my friends. The problem is that during busy periods we all find that the speed drops off so much it becomes difficult to use efficiently. So it appears that whilst speed is paramount to selling the service the capacity to handle large quantities of traffic leave much to be desired. I must say though that some people who subscribe to the faster speeds on offer do not have these problems to the same degree as us lot in the stalls!”
by WiserSM
Friday, September 14 2012, 10:47PM
“When he was Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, Jeremy Hunt said that he wanted this country to have the best broadband in Europe but 2mbps is not enough now, let alone in three years.
Never mind 2mbps - try a ****** 0.3mbps in Irby upon Humber.”
by 1812o
Friday, September 14 2012, 12:02PM
“which will allow much faster speeds than can currently be offered by BT."
That had me smiling at the BT broadband advert where the students had let their room be used as an internet café and the pain in the butt points to the modem and says, "With that bad boy over there" and he should have gone on to say that it's a dinosaur.
My broadband speed at this moment is:
Download speed 96.78 Mbps
Upload speed 9.19Mbps”