British Telecom, one of the largest broadband service providers in the UK, is engaged in serious talks with the Scottish government regarding the upgrade of its exchanges in Scotland. A project with three million pounds worth of budget is all set to be rolled out soon.
The first indication came from a statement made by Stephen Timms, minister for Digital Britain, when he placed a proposal of charging extra50p on telephone bills and utilising this money for improving broadband services in the UK.
According to reliable industry sources, BT is in the process of identifying fifty exchanges located in the remote areas of Scotland, which will be upgraded in the first phase. Rural exchanges will be targeted first because though the coverage in rural Scotland is satisfactory, the quality of broadband service is awful. The speed is very slow and in some areas, people do not have any connection at all. Finance Secretary John Swinney expressed his awareness and concerns over the situation, and a similar concern was aired by John Lamont, Roxburgh and Berwickshire MSP, while talking to a BBC correspondent. According to him, in remote areas of Scotland like the Borders, it is quite frustrating to use broadband services. Most of the time users fail to connect and even if they are able to, the speeds are woefully slow (click for a broadband test). Under such circumstances, it is imperative that upgrade plans are immediately undertaken.
The industry is quite excited about the new proposal. This is definitely good news for the consumers and better service also means increased revenue for the industry. The detailed plan is still being worked out and will be published within a week or so. Not only this, the government has already given indications that this is not the end, rather it is the first phase of a bigger and more ambitious plan to improve the quality of broadband service in the entire nation.
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This entry was posted
on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 10:00 am and is filed under Consumers Den, Telecommunication, The Tech Life.
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