We have assembled some of the individual issues that our communities face on a day to day basis below and we have submitted the studies ) to the House of Commons Select Committee here – connect 8 posters (2)
“”My partner and I recently moved to Park Corner. We’re a young couple working in market research companies 10/25 minutes away. We absolutely love Park Corner. A good internet connection is one thing we miss from our previous ‘townie’ life. We work from home once a week and in the evenings sometimes; unfortunately work is completed at half the pace here because the connection is so slow. Many a frustrating hour has been spent trying to download or upload documents! On a personal level we find slow streaming a pain, too. In a day and age where people are increasingly reliant on the internet for films and TV (both me and my partner are big cinema buffs!), it is quite painful to have to allow everything to buffer for 10 minutes before it can play””
Question to pose : nice to live in a rural location but there is a downside – why?
“”I have experienced repeated outages of my broadband service which drives all my other technology. I was off all this weekend with a critical deadline to meet. This happens so often it has definitely affected my business reputation””
Question to pose : just how many people can echo this scenario?
“”We live between Nettlebed & Watlington. Connectivity is very slow at it’s best & sometimes non-existent. Was recently job hunting and this was very frustrating. Also resent paying the same price as others with served by fibre optic and not receiving same level of service. Do you work from home?: Yes””
Question to pose : just what are we getting for the subscriptions we pay?
“”Why you would like fast broadband in the Howe Hill area?: Cookley Green is adjacent to Howe Hill and suffers similar communications problems. Mobile phones rarely receive a signal in this area and with a poor broadband service as well in this area, we are increasingly put at a disadvantage where modern communications are concerned. Our proximity to London and Reading with their high tech industries and many people now working from home here, there are many residents here whose work involves using the latest technology. This is virtually impossible in this area at the moment. With more houses due to be built in this area in the near future, the problem will only become worse unless we have a reliable, high-speed broadband here now””
Question to pose : a poor mobile service makes things worse and new homes must be considered too!
Why you would like fast broadband in the Howe Hill area?: “”As a family the speeds of our broadband inhibit our internet and downloading activities. With two teenagers trying to use the internet for both homework and wanting to download films life is very tricky as the speeds hamper both. For my husband he has given up working regularly from home as the speeds are too slow. This is not what we expect in the 21st Century, particularly when surrounding areas have much higher speeds. Again the rural areas are neglected.
As Chairman of Swyncombe Parish Council, I receive complaints on a regular basis of the service in the area, the residents are extremely unhappy””
Question to pose : whole families are affected on a daily basis – how much longer must we wait?
Question to pose : Wake up BT ! This is the reality.
Take the case of the Green family who live at Coates Farm where three Parish boundaries meet – a shade over 2 miles from Watlington and probably three miles from Nettlebed where all five members of the family have a constant need for internet connectivity
Grandmother Helen lives in Suffolk and gets 28 mps speeds but the rest family struggle between 0.3mps and occasionally 2mps but they can rarely all work at the same time
Question to pose : Why is Oxfordshire rural broadband so far behind other counties when the established demand is so high?
Connect8 