P-05-793 Hi speed broadband to Llangenny village – Correspondence from the Petitioner to the Committee, 02.01.18

Thank you for your email

I appreciate that Welsh Government cannot prescribe which properties are connected and in what order.

However, I would make a number of points:

1. Despite this being a public contract and the connections being paid for by the public, it is impossible to get any accurate and truthful picture from BT about their plans and timescales. I have personally been advised by as BT director, through our Assembly member and on the phone to the call centre of three different dates; the end of November (past), the end of December (past) and the end of January. Kirsty Williams was advised 5 months from mid October. None of the promises so far have been kept and there is no sign of any future timescales being met. Welsh Government should ensure that BT are accountable to the public for their performance under this contract and are providing reliable and accurate information.
2. The Welsh Government contract should be targeted on improving the service to those villages which are receiving the worst low speed broadband including our own. By way of examples, we have GCSE students in the village who have to go to friends’ houses to do their homework because the low speed broadband signal is so bad; a pub that cant take card payments because the signal is so bad and they are embarrassed and have to send customers home promising to do a bank transfer for the cost of their meals; farmers who cant fill in documentation for the Government on line because the signal drops out before it is completed (and who face fines for late returns); a woman who has to take holiday because the signal is too bad to log on to her employer’s server. I am a coordinator of the Brecon Mountain Rescue Team and have to run rescues from home using the internet and I need a reliable service to do so.

Across the village, our broadband speeds are shocking. My phone can measure a signal as slow as 10kb/s (yes kilobytes!) and at times the signal has dropped below 5 kb/s meaning it records as 0.0 on the phone. That’s slower than the old dial up speed and too slow to download emails let alone carry out any other sort of transaction.

I would urge the Committee to support our petition and urge Welsh Government to hold BT accountable for sorting out the broadband signal

Many thanks

Duncan Forbes