Rural broadband improvement project?

So I live in a village, the exchange is in the village, we have no fiber just IPStream which gets hammered quite heavily at peak times so we get a download of about 2mb at peak, 8mb normally.

So the government ran a scheme to improve broadband for those living outside the village, My parents who live about 2 miles from the village had a speed of 2mb to 1mb at peak, they now have fiber and have 25mb download, they have done this on all the local rural areas, put up a cabinet running to our exchange while we are stuck on our 2mb. I have contacted them and they deem our speed to be good enough.

Why have they done this? Are they doing this across the country?

Goal for this year nationally was 90% with access to superfast broadband i.e. like the parents and roll-outs continue with the next target of 95%.

So yes a lottery with some seeing improvements and some not.

In reply to a post by falko89:

So the government ran a scheme to improve broadband for those living outside the village,

Why have they done this? Are they doing this across the country?

Between BT and VM (and a small number of tiny altnets), commercial upgrades to "superfast" speeds (>24Mbps) reached about 75% of the premises. BT reached their part of this in Spring 2014.

Central government, as "BDUK", part-funded around 45 local schemes to get that percentage higher, with each scheme adding some local funding and, in some cases, EU funding. Those 45 schemes range across the country, but portions are left out - London, Bristol, Hull for example.

The target for phase 1 of those schemes was to get superfast speeds to another 4 million premises - or 90% of the country. That was due to have happened by the end of 2015, and the target was probably reached a couple of months ago.

Phase 2 is mostly up and running now, with a target of 95%, or another 1.5 million premises.

Money is being recovered from phase 1 through underspend and clawback mechanisms, and is likely to be spent getting further coverage. Expectations are that this will fund coverage of a further 1%, or another 150,000 premises.

Meanwhile, commercial work continues - with BT funding more coverage in London (and, supposedly, 29 other cities), and with VM funding an expansion of their network - increasing coverage by around a quarter of their existing size.

In reply to a post by falko89:

I have contacted them and they deem our speed to be good enough.

"Them"? The local government scheme?

It probably isn't that they deem your speed to be good enough - with speeds below 24Mbps, you probably classify as "NGA white" in the project vernacular.

Instead, they probably deem you to be too expensive to upgrade at present, and that other local communities offer better value for the money.

It may be worth clarifying this with them - to ensure that you do qualify for future subsidies.

falk89

As far as industry is concerned you get 8Mb therefore are not at the top of the pile for a subsidised improvement, ( whereas your parents on 2Mb were!) However, you may get lucky and get a new cabinet outside the exchange that could improve your speed if you are on an EO line.

This depends on the distance you will be from the new cabinet and how many people on EO lines are getting under around 10Mb speeds.

The congestion yoy are seeing in the peak may also improve as people outside the village move to fibre. Other ISPs may also have bigger IPstream capacities so may give a better service.

If you give the info below people may be able to give you a more complete answer.
What exchange you are on.
Whether you are on an EO line (or cab number if not).
What is your present supplier.
Links to a Speed test from thinkbroadband in a quiet period ( Wired single, PC working only) and Speed test in a peak period.

My exchange is Ballyronan. I live in the village beside the exchange, all rural lines connect to this exchange in the end but all rural roads have a cabinet stuck on them, this main exchange which I am connected to does not for some reason.

As you can see from this pic, my parents live in the middle of no where, 2-3 miles outside the village, they are getting 30mb+

Parents