BT's Race to infinity gone really pear shape now?

Not sure if this is the right place for this posting.

There are now 6 exchanges who appear to have 100% support for their exchange on the BT race to infinity website and there can only be 5 winners!

Is this voting really credible?

I know when I did some campaigning in my local area there were several people who will object to voting under any circumstances. Some thought they didn't want or need fibre and others simply wouldn't disclose their personal data on a website I can't believe the same doesn't apply to these areas. Not even 1 person has objected. Unbelievable!

Other thoughts

- Not one person away from home for the whole period?
- All the exchanges got the last hundred votes in the last few days. Rather convenient that none of those people were away for xmas wasn't it!

It will be interesting to see how BT deals with this situation. They could enable the 6 exchanges but this would be unfair to other campaigns if 'cheating' has been going on.

Clearly the campaign league table was destroyed by apparent false voting. Is it really fair to other areas that played by the rules, and simply gave up in the face of such ridiculous voting patterns, to let the cheats win?

If it was just BT's money being used for the fibre roll out then if BT want to ignore the current situation on voting it is up to them. However the government is now putting money up for fibre roll out. BT will argue it is their money being used for 'winning' exchanges but difficult to justify this when public money is being invested at the same time!

P.S. I must declare an interest. I spent £250 of my own money on leaflets and posters locally as I thought avoiding my area being left out was important. I don't think anyone could claim to not know about the campaign locally . However most simply can't be bothered to vote as the campaign is so obviously flawed. I feel cheated by BT and feel like an idiot now wasting my money, and time, on a flawed exercise.

Edited by kenb (Thu 30-Dec-10 17:19:52)

is as I have said a few times, smaller exchanges were always going to win this 'race'.

far easier to cheat a few hundred votes than 10s of thousands.

even not taking cheating into account smaller communities have an advantage as easier to do campaigns etc.

It was always going to be a con, if this was any other company they would reset the scores for a user cheating and entering evry post code in there area, as you said not all people in an area would vote yes to getting an upgrade on their exchange

I think they wont care, BT did this campaign knowing that most likely smaller exchanges would win and they will now enable these exchanges. It may or may not be profitable in operational terms but they will get good publicity for it which is what this is a PR exercise.

Response from BT:

Thank you for your email dated 30/12/10 about BT's Race To Infinity.

I am sorry to hear you are unhappy with the voting system that BT are using for the Race To Infinity.

I can assure you that we are doing all within our control to ensure that the votes registered are all legitimate and we are checking each vote to ensure it has not been raised incorrectly. You see in order to place a vote you do have to input a phone number regardless of whether it is a BT number or not. If for instance a 3rd party registers your number without your knowledge then there is very little that we can do. Please be assured that all votes within the 75% to 100% will all be checked to ensure they are correct. Your feedback has now also been provided to our Race To Infinity team.

I trust that my response will assist you further with your query.




Are we really going to give these idiots millions of pounds of public money to upgrade smaller exchanges. I expect it will be used to upgrade the exchanges serving the country residences of MP's and BT execs rather then being used to provide a service to real customers. Isn't it great to live in a country of idiots and corrupt politicians.

Locally I am sure BT will continue to make obscene profits out of my medium size exchange and use it to subsidise smaller exchanges. (This isn't an opinion but a fact supplied by a BT contact with access to amounts spent on individual exchanges) At the same time those in larger towns and cities see cheaper prices and better services. Don't you just love OFCOM's pathetic price controls which have created this situation.

I think I can speak for one of the "100% exchanges" in this farce, sorry, race (ie Madingley). There has been no cheating here, our votes are genuine, and have been won by massive poster & door-to-door campaigning, visiting every address served by the exchange. There has also been a mutual & friendly rivalry with the next door exchange, Caxton, also one of the 100% group.

Problem is BT does not seem to know the total number of premises connected to each exchange - the published numbers are quite clearly wrong. Yes there are properties not inhabited, and a few residents not willing to register their vote, yet even now votes are still being registered by all the 100% exchanges! Bizarre, but the problem really is on BT's side

BT is in danger of creating a huge PR disaster from this

A great job if you can actually get the volunteers to go door to door. A lot of hard work.

I am not surprised that the numbers don't add up. I had a long conversation with someone at Openreach in November about how they got the line data. In the end he never did get a real answer from his colleagues. We have a large MOD base/college in the village and couldn't make the numbers add up unless they had lots of lines on the exchange being counted. He was unable to explain how they could tell the difference between lines running off an internal 'switchboard' system and those actually running direct from the exchange. His recommendation was to check using sam knows but that website doesn't differentiate between the two types it appears!

Sadly around me the majority couldn't give a stuff about helping. They want the faster services but want to pay peanuts for it. As might be expected most have some cheap ISP that is vastly overloaded at peak times and hence very slow. I have given up explaining how broadband works to such people now.

P.S. I assume you actually got the support of the local parish council. Mine are so backward they couldn't see the need for an upgrade and are currently pursuing littering litigation against me for putting up posters! Such is life. They have yet to persuade the district council to press charges. How nice it is to live with such backward people.

In reply to a post by kenb:

P.S. I assume you actually got the support of the local parish council. Mine are so backward they couldn't see the need for an upgrade and are currently pursuing littering litigation against me for putting up posters! Such is life. They have yet to persuade the district council to press charges. How nice it is to live with such backward people.

Very much so - all 4 PCs involved (there are 3 and a bit villages covered by the exchange) have been highly supportive. As you would expect in an area just outside Cambridge there are also a lot of savvy people around to push the campaign forward.

I will speak for another one of the "100% exchanges" Whitchurch

our town council also pledged suport "money" for a campain to bring super fast broadband to whitchurch as well as donations from local businesses.

we had teams of door knockers collecting votes on signup sheets and these votes where submitted online or by txt mess , we also had polling stations in a local pub and library , the firm who are running vote for inifity for bt where given the ip / email address / mobile number of the places / people who was collecting votes so these are logged as legitimate source of votes and not some one trying to cheat the system , the signup sheets are also saved as proof.

our exchange serves whitchurch and over 11 rural villages over a wide area as well as one of the largest schools in hampshire

why should smaller exchanges not get fttp / fttc.....

In reply to a post by kenb:

Locally I am sure BT will continue to make obscene profits out of my medium size exchange and use it to subsidise smaller exchanges.

Well since the smaller exchanges have been paying top dollar for the lesser services for the past ten years, perhaps it's time the medium to large exchanges paid their way too.

How obscene are the profits on your exchange? Can you elaborate on the pricing scheme?