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Am Bratach No. 196
Broadband on the blink for two days Broadband users in Strathnaver, Altnaharra and Kinbrace, left without a connection for two days late last month, were told their computers were to blame, writes FIONA BURNETT. “Everybody I spoke to had the same problem,” said BT Internet customer, Michelle Hay of Dalvina, Strathnaver. After spending a frustrating hour on the phone to a BT call centre in India, Mrs Hay, said: “They went through a series of checks and I kept saying that I’d spoken to various households that are in a very small radius, from exactly the same exchange, we’re all having identical problems, starting from roughly the same time and I don’t believe it’s my laptop at fault”. Mrs Hay was advised to remove any security software from her computer while another customer was told to take her phone socket apart. “They wouldn’t accept that it could possibly be the exchange,” she said, after being told that there was no problem with her phone line. “I think they were relying on the fact that we didn’t know how to complain and we couldn’t get hold of anyone to complain to because they give you limited numbers to call and most go through to a call centre in India.” It later transpired that broadband users linked to the Altnaharra and Kinbrace telephone exchanges suffered identical problems — at the same time. A BT spokesman said that line cards had to be replaced, at least in the Kinbrace exchange. “I’m not technically minded,” he explained, “but that was what I was told.” The failure, the first of its kind reported to us, affected the three exchanges in a similar way, although not all users were entirely without their connection. “Our connection was just very slow,” said Bratach editor, Donald MacLeod, whose office is a couple of miles south of the Strathnaver exchange. “We would like to apologise to all our customers who were inconvenienced by the break in service”, said the BT spokesman. “If anybody has a problem with their internet service, with their broadband service, they should talk to their service provider.” Regarding their own procedure for registering broadband faults, the spokesman said: “The technical help desk will first of all try to rule out what any faults could be, because the customers will not necessarily know if there is a fault on their own exchange.” Nor it seems does BT, although they say that, after all the essential tests are carried out, they would “eventually”. Customers using an alternative provider should follow the same procedure and if similar complaints are listed from a particular area the provider will pass the complaints on to BT Wholesale, which will investigate. The good news is that BT is rolling out “The 21st Century Network” to every exchange in the country between now and 2011. “There’ll be faster broadband speeds and a better telephone network,” said the spokesman. “BT inherited lots of legacy networks when it took over from the Post Office; so there’s a whole heap of different networks out there and we’re planning to get everything all on to the one Internet Protocol Platform.” People still waiting for any kind of broadband will also benefit, although the spokesman warned: “Broadband will still be restricted by the laws of physics which means that the service degrades the further you are away from the exchange.” Telephone lines and exchanges are owned by, and the responsibility of, BT. |