Downloads take forever – 007 Daniel Craig’s father
Saturday 3rd September 2011, 11:30AM BST.
Superspy James Bond has his pick of the latest high-tech gadgets – but his dad is struggling to even get a decent internet connection.
James Bond actor Daniel Craig’s family live in Hindford near Oswestry and, according to the Hollywood star’s father Tim, the whole area needs an injection of up-to-date technical wizardry. Mr Craig said his broadband connection has never been great and it has become worse since he switched to BT last month.
He says what adds to his frustration is that he lives just a few miles from BT’s telephone exchanges in Whittington, one of the biggest in the country.
Mr Craig said: “Recently we have signed up for a new BT home hub in the vain hope we could achieve better connection speeds – sadly this is not the case. It has got worse.
BT spokesman Chris Orum said: “BT is sorry that Mr Craig is getting such slow broadband speeds. We have been in touch with him and are working to see if there is anything we can do to speed things up.”
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Firstly, the size of a telephone exchange has nothing whatsoever to do with ADSL speeds.
Secondly, properties in Hindford are connected to the Oswestry exchange. Whittington does not have an exchange.
Thirdly, why is this even a ‘news’ item?
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Jake, this is a local newspaper covering a large rural area so this is a story of interest to many readers.
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Sorry, but post #13 below sums up the relevance perfectly.
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Jake, not entirely true. Yes it can affect it – it’s all to do with contention. Less people = better contention = better speeds.
I agree on your third point though.
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Passes bouquet to the Headline Writer.
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We have been in touch with him and are working to see if there is anything we can do to speed things up.”
lol like the pun
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I can sympathise with Mr Craig in his dissatifaction with the useless BT.
Living in Telford, obviously a modern town, many of us are connected to the relatively distant Hollinswood exchange.
Unlike many other BT exchanges, this has not been upgraded (it typically provides a less than 3 meg service, despite the 8 meg service advertised). In addition, BT have failed to ‘unbundle’ the exchange to give access to their competitors – thus meaning we cannot take the option of their many offers – I could have the rubbish service I pay for from BT for free with Sky for example!
Virgin have some cable access in nearby streets, but not, apparently in mine (it only took them 2 months to confirm that!).
Getting back to the awful BT, I have tried raising the issue, but cannot find anyone in
the company who a) understands the issue, or b) cares.
So much for the private sector allowing for more competition!
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Peter I get full 8meg from Hollinswood so please don’t generalise, but I share your pain with the fact BT haven’t chosen to upgrade it to atleast 21CN yet, considering it serves Telford Town Centre and office complexes.
Too bad cable is not available where you are, but you can ask them to send a ‘spotter’ to make totally sure you’re out of a viable service area.
Happy to help.
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It’s up to other operators to choose which BT exchanges they would like to operate from, so the lack of choice at Hollinswood isn’t BT’s fault. It’s more likely that Virgin Media’s significant presence in the area deters potential competitiors.
If you get 3Mbps now, I’m afraid you won’t really see an improvement with ADSL2+ (BT 21CN, LLU operators).
The speed you get is mostly determined by the length of the line between you and the exchange. Since it’s governed by the laws of physics, there’s nothing BT can do about it until Hollinswood (and your local street cabinet) are upgraded to FTTC.
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I’ve just switched from tesco.net to BT broadband on the promise of better speeds and free wifi when mobile. Whilst I had a reliable service for 4 years with tesco the BT offering is virtually useless. Although it’s supposed to be a an always-on service it drops out every day. In the first week I had to ring BT’s NO-help desk (which appears to be just outside Calcutta) every day in a desperate attempt to get service restored. After hours of totally useless and often incomprehensible advice it seems the only way to keep their Home Hub running is to stick a paper clip into the back of it and reset it every day. The “Free” Wifi also turns out to be nothing of the sort. When you sign up they fail to tell you that the only way you get free access is if you open up your hub to public access. AVOID!!!
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Whittington is not a telephone exchange its a network management centre and does not handle local traffic including broadband, Mr Craig is probably off Oswestry Exchange some distance away and unfortunately the money is being spent in the high population centres at this time.
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My previous comment removed so I’ll try again. The BT spokesman may also like to investigate why BT internet is so unreliable compared to my previous provider. After 4 years of reliable service with another provider my BT Home Hub refuses to stay connected for more than 12 hours at a time. After hours fruitlessly talking to BT Help desk operators, who seem only to read from a script on their screen and with no relevance to the problem, the only option is to keep rebooting the hub. Since BT are now extensively marketing their “Summer Deals” they might do better to concentrate on giving us a service which works reliably.
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Whittington one of the biggest phone exchanges in the country? There isn’t even one in Whittington; only the Oswestry town exchange covers the entire area.
Perhaps the planned upgrade to 21CN in March next year will help him a bit.
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Whittington one of the biggest phone exchanges in the country? There isn’t even one in Whittington; only the Oswestry town exchange covers the entire area.
Perhaps the planned upgrade to 21CN in March next year will help him a bit.
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We live on the outskirts of Telford and have a similar tale what is even more frustrating is if we lived 20 houses further up the road we would have 50X faster.
We switched to BT six months ago for similar reasons and they just aren’t interested. We have sent a two page letter of complaint regarding the poor service we have received and have yet to receive a reply (six weeks and still waiting an acknowledgement).
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Couldn’t agree more. I live in Telford, and am connected to the somewhat distant Hollinswood exchange. This exchange, despite being right in the centre of urban, hi-tech Telford, has never been unbundled, meaning that competitors such as Sky and TalkTalk have no access without their customers paying significant monthly fees to BT, despite BT not being their service provider of choice.
There is nearby access to Virgin cable, but not nearby ebough apparently – though it took Virgin a month to be able to confirm that they couldn’t provide a service.
Getting back to BT, despite advertising an 8mb service, they only provide a less than 3mb service, and, as stated above, have a virtual monopoly here. No amount of phoning their useless help desk seems to be able to get to the department responsible for unbundling of services. And they have the gall to put up prices!
So much for competition!
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Hollinswood has not been unbundled because there is not enough space in the exchange to install extra kit etc.
BT will not 21cn it because there is very little demand on this exchange. 3,000 lines compared to 8,000 at Oakengates and 15,000 at Wellington.
I am connected to this exchange and 4Mb is the max I get because the line is long.
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I too have had issues since transferring to BT earlier this year.
These surrounded my original order going missing which meant the transfer was anyting but seamless, then the quoted calls and broadband monthly package price turning out to be much higher than stated when they called me with their offer.
Trying to call BT by telephone is an absolute waste of time: never ending recorded menu options take you around in frustrating circles, and if or when you do manage to reach someone, they don’t understand my language and I have no idea what they’re trying to say.
The way around it I’ve found, is to complain via their website. There is a link clearly marked something like “I wish to complain”. I’ve been forced to do so twice, and have received calls back from someone in this country by the following day.
Unfortunately, the problems I have with them remain and are far from being resolved. Be very careful who you choose as your next provider people.
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Same story all over the country. So many people complaining, and that is what puts others off. Poor martha lane fox has a big job on her hands to convert the refuseniks.
The only answer is to lay some fibre. The old copper phone network was never designed for internet access. It has done well all these years to provide 1st generation access, but it can never provide full internet access to everyone apart from through dial up.
If we don’t want to be left behind in the digital revolution we have to wake up government and councils and not let public money go into patching up the copper. We have to get fibre out to rural areas and feed networks inwards to the cities, until everyone has a fit for purpose connection.
Then we will be a digitalbritain for James Bond to be proud of serving.
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Perhaps his son could have a word with Q…..
Also have to agree with comment 1, why is this a ‘news’ story? Perhaps the Star could set up a consumer helpdesk and then tell us the outcome when matters have been resolved?
Just because you have a mildly famous relative does not per se make things newsworthy.
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In other news…
Bernard Cribbins’ niece has an unfortunate build up of limescale in her kettle.
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Oh dear I am sorry to hear that, should we start up a Facebook page for people to pledge their solidarity and then hopefully take it to government to discuss? A case of cheese discussing chalk.
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When ever my kettle needs descaling I always ring Sue Pollards’ uncle as he always has some Viakal to hand.
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My mate Dewi, who used to play rugby for England and the Lions, had a puncture in his Discovery last week. Imagine his suprise when his local Land Rover dealer provided the cheapest quote for a new tyre.
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And in other news my dahlias have been damaged by the gales overnight, alas I have no real claim to fame, unless seeing all the James Bond films qualifies me
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A slightly leftfield opinion, but the problem here is not Oswestry, not BT but the society we live in
for example, there are fibre optic cables waiting to be used at the end of the A5 but they will never be dug under roads in Shrewsbury in my lifetime because of the pathetic attitude of NIMBY residents moaning of roadworks
no one complains enough on mass
apart from the well travelled no one really knows what it is like to use high speed internet – claims of TalkTalk’s High Speed internet is a joke compared to Japan and South Korea
us Brits settle for anything and when the inconvenienced NIMBYS moan things will never change
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I really have to laugh at all this !!
We are an ISP operating from Stafford Park Telford.
I sell ADSL (Broadband) and high speed microwave links (have a look at our mast on Atcham Business park!)
and … we just DONT get any of these problems !!
Its ALL down to PROPER installation at the customer end, and DECENT technically COMPETENT support. – We have NO ONE – repeat NO ONE that suffers from poor speed or intermittent connection AT ALL.
If this Mr Craig had talked to ME – he would have been given sound advice on exactly what to expect – and i have no doubt he would have had a better service as a result
I despair – I really DO at all the absolute HYPE that is advertised by the larger operators – BT included with their irritating advert trying to fool you that ony THEY have discovered how to design a wireless network that works better than anyone else …
” ye cannot change the laws of physics !!)
Regards
Ask Eric dotcom
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Ermm sounds like another small outfit blowing their trumpet! microwave dish job depending if you have line of sight?
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There are currently two websites/organisations looking into the issue of poor broadband service in Shropshire – one of which is run by Shropshire Council who have a share of an £8.2million investment from the Government to help put any plans into motion.
Take a look at Get Shropshire Online (www.getshropshireonline.co.uk) and the councils Connecting Shropshire websites (www.connectingshropshire.co.uk).
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Hi DS
Are you (and others interested)
that a Nationwide survey of internet connectivity has already been done by OFCOM?
see:
http://maps.ofcom.org.uk/broadband/downloads/ofcom-uk-broadband-speed-report-2011.pdf
It is on the basis of this that £530M has been allocated for a nationwide upgrade to “high speed” interent access by 2015
To qoute the report: (clause 1.4)
1.4 The government has allocated £530m to assist in providing the UK with the best superfast broadband network in Europe by 2015 and is encouraging local authorities to develop their own broadband plans setting out how superfast broadband access will be rolled-out in their area. Local authorities will be able to apply for a share of the £530m.
So WE ALREADY KNOW WHAT THE ISSUE IS – and Shropshire has been given £8.2M of this £530M to GET ON WITH IT..
So … WHY are we wasting time (and money) “looking at the same problem all over again with two websites, when the OFCOM report has already established that 18.9% of shropshire users get speeds of less than 2Mb/s?
NOW – problem is its likely that all this £8M will do is speed up installation of fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) – by BT which will ONLY benefit those users in concentrated areas of population. (like housing estates, industrial estates etc)
That 18.9% who currently get less than 2mb/s are im=n the main in rural areas – so my guess is that this £8.2M wont benefit them!!1
AND that is why we are CURRENTLY installing microwave links to rural areas, as we speak – to give those rural users “superfast” internet speeds of up to 30Mb/s (and availalble in both download AND upload – unlike ADSL !!)
And WE havent had ANY share of that £8.2M – How fair is that !!
eask Eric dotcom
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Hi Mike
(reply to my post number 16)
Thanks for your condescending reply.
The size of the outfit is irrelevant.
in fact – in my experience in over 45 years in this business- its the larger operators that give poorer service.
And – (you are assuming) if we were small – so what? – whats wrong with that? – look where many companies like google, and bill gates started !!
And Mike – do you think we are stupid?
we are – having spent many years in this industry, and radio /microwave communications, WELL AWARE of the propogation characteristics of electromagnetic waves in the microwave regions.
Mike – You just carry on with whatever internet access you have – good luck to you – and us experts to carry on providng excellent service .
Regards
Ask eric dotcom
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