BT Defends Fast Broadband For Its Chairman

BT has defended connecting its chairman to broadband, despite complaints from his neighbours in the rural Oxfordshire village of Hambleden.

Sir Michael Rake has got a 1Mbps broadband connection using BT’s experimental bonded broadband technology, BET, while neighbours only get dial-up, but BT defended the move, pointing out that BET is an experimental trial with limited numbers. The companyalso said that other operators have equally failed in their efforts to get regular services to Hambleden, one of many rural “not spots”.

“I think it stinks of corruption,” Hambleden resident and businessman Gary Ashworth told The Telegraph. “The chairman of BT is given preferential treatment over long-serving customers.”

In response BT explained that, though it has broadband-enabled the exchange which serves Hambleden, the village itself is too far from the exchange to get BT’s normal commercial broadband service – and other providers, such as Sky, are in the same position.

“Several companies actually supply broadband from the exchange serving their village, but the lines between the village and the exchange are simply too long to support a broadband service,” said a BT spokesperson. “This is a technical challenge that neither BT nor any other company has been able to overcome on a commercial basis.”

The BET technology trial pushes a basic 1Mbps service up to 12km away from the exchange, by pairing multiple phone lines, a technique which has been proposed by SharedBand as a way to fill rural gaps in the UK, to meet the government’s promise of a 2Mbps basic service for all.

Sir Michael’s inclusion in the trial is not at all unusual, but caused particular unhappiness in Hambleden, where Mr Ashworth was quoted £68,000 to run a dedicated line to his house capable of high-speed internet connection.

“Trials of new technologies are often conducted among a company’s own staff so there is nothing unusual in this situation,” the BT spokesman said, adding that no one complains when BA flies its own senior executives first class. “BT has learnt a lot through the trial the chairman participated in and hopefully those lessons will benefit the residents of Hambleden in due course”

eWEEK Europe contacted Sky to find out if other providers will be offering broadband in Hambledon soon, but had no response by publication time.