to infinity and beyond................

Unless of course you live in Scotland!

There are extremely few exchanges being enabled here, I live in Inverness, the capitol of the Highlands, so far to date no one has infinity, and the planned upgrades are...none for 2012.

I personally think this is ridiculous and a slap in the face from BT, surely it would make more sense to upgrade all the areas who cannot get cable first, instead of appeasing the already spoiled people of inner city London or Manchester, not that they all are, just the vast majority. 22725 properties with no planned upgrade.

We have two exchanges here, Machdui and Culloden, Culloden is still running ADSL max, which is ridiculous given that it services 5559 residential proerties, and is increasing rapidly in size.

There is of course the fujitsu bradband rollout to be announced, which Inverness will not get as it is not rural.

Get a grip BT, try and upgrade the parts of the country that need it, not your auntie ethels exchange and not in an area getting Virgin media.

One thing is for sure, If and WHEN Infinity hits Inverness in 2043 or whenever, you wont be getting my money, a proper internet company will.

Now that my rant is over, I shall look forward to the day when i am dead and perhaps my grandchildrens children may have fast broadband..... when infinity will be a knackered old useless way to get broadband.

In aberdeen here

still no plans till atleast 6/12 for me

theres one exchange which is due for 11/11 but i can't see it happening and it would of been push back no doubt.

they'll be waiting for a handout from your government

In reply to a post by yarwell:

they'll be waiting for a handout from your government

My guess is they'll have to go rummaging around the back of the sofa (having spent all their money on free prescriptions, toll-free road bridges and bargain basement university fees)

In reply to a post by Remidizer:

I personally think this is ridiculous and a slap in the face from BT, surely it would make more sense to upgrade all the areas who cannot get cable first, instead of appeasing the already spoiled people of inner city London or Manchester, not that they all are, just the vast majority. 22725 properties with no planned upgrade.
<snip>
Get a grip BT, try and upgrade the parts of the country that need it, not your auntie ethels exchange and not in an area getting Virgin media.

BT are not a charity. They exist to make money for their shareholders. That means they roll products out where they think they can make the most money quickly. It's not a huge surprise that includes areas already served by VM really. VM's predecessors will have used the same criterion when they rolled out their network back in the 80s and 90s. Since VM's market share even where they have a presence is still small it means BT still have a large and affluent market to aim for in those areas.

Sorry, but Scotland is just not as attractive when it comes to making money. Population density and geography combine to make it an expensive and less profitable area.

One thing is for sure, If and WHEN Infinity hits Inverness in 2043 or whenever, you wont be getting my money, a proper internet company will.

That depends what you mean. You appear to be blaming BT Broadband for the roll-out pattern and that's pointless. BT Broadband is not responsible for that and in fact if asked they would be more than happy to join you in urging that your exchange be upgraded. No the company that is responsible for your lack of FTTC is BT Openreach. They are not an ISP. Furthermore whatever flavour of FTTC you eventually sign up it almost certainly be provided by BT Openreach since no-one else is providing it. By choosing to go with a different ISP you are not hurting or bothering the providers of FTTC in any way. You can only hurt them by sticking with ADSL.

In conclusion:
1.'BT' is not one company. Your primary complaint should be addressed to 'BT Openreach'. Your side issue of poor ISP performance should be directed to 'BT Broadband'.
2.BT are just doing what they have to do to survive.
3.(although you didn't mention this) BT (through their Openreach division) are currently improving the service provided to far, far more people than any of their peers. VM doesn't come close even if you overlook the fact that most of its customers don't even seem to need what is being offered.

So:BT can be annoying. Life can be annoying. Unfortunately that's the country we live in and BT are best hope we've currently got

Infinity has nothing to do with the Openreach roll out of FTTC. Infinity is just a branding name on BT's own FTTC offering.

The main exchange in Inverness is probably not a candidate this early due to a number of factors. It's interesting that after all this time there isn't even much LLU presence. Sky, Orange, o2...none of them seem interested at all. Might be a take up issue or a cost one, or both. Distance likely plays into it too. Nothing much north of Edinburgh is completed in Scotland yet.

Eclipse have a good map showing the situation on a UK basis at http://www.eclipse.net.uk/fibre-broadband/product-an... (click the options for ready now up to next 6-12 months.

As you can see it's not just Scotland, but most of Wales and big chunks of eastern and northern England. In short, places where relatively few people live.

Also consider that it's not exactly a done deal anywhere else (besides Northern Ireland which I believe has every exchange covered now). Even in London there are stacks of exchanges still waiting and, being frank, there's a lot more customers there.

Given your apparent distaste, why are you currently using a BT line and using a BT owned ISP? (plusnet). Where is Virgin? Will they roll out cable to you before Openreach give you FTTC?

Edited by orly (Wed 07-Sep-11 11:45:20)