Many of us in the village are connected to the internet; we enjoy this modern method of communication and research, courtesy of many different Internet Providers (BT, AOL, TalkTalk, Tiscali etc.).

However, we all share the same problem, that of speed of service; as our reliance upon this technology grows so our need for speed of response increases. Sadly though, the technology conspires against us. Web pages, photographs and mail programs we use are growing in size, some users view movies, even tv or listen to the radio. Others want to send large amounts of data to others such as customers. We are all trying to squeeze more data through the same small wires that carried poor voice communication before the last war. All of us are reliant upon BT and their telephone exchange at Seend to deliver our internet connections. We depend upon their thin copper wire connecting us to that exchange, and we rely upon their equipment at the exchange to be modern and capable of fast traffic.

Just consider how far you are from that exchange, 1mile, 2 miles or possibly more; some of us are over 4 miles from the exchange. The copper wires don't even travel in a straight line, and they are full of repairs, connections, junctions etc. Just imagine how difficult it is to force a good electrical signal through those fragile cables in all weathers. Maybe now you can understand why you do not get the 8Mbps that was sold to you by your Internet Provider, (don’t forget the small print “up to 8Mbps”). So the speed that you thought you were going to get turned out to be far less! Some lucky users are getting over 4Mbps, and some unlucky users get as little as 0.5Mbps.

You can find out what speed you are currently receiving by going to the website www.speedtest.net .

Where slow response and poor speed may be an inconvenience for you or I, it can severely hamper business communications and even prevent them gaining customers, and that cannot be good for attracting enterprise to the area.

You will have heard in the news that BT and others are providing super fast service in the cities, but how are they doing it? Fibre Optic cables are replacing copper cables; one fibre optic cable can replace thousands of copper cables and the resulting improvement of signal is significant. These fibre optic cables are being installed from the exchanges to the little green cabinets found in the streets; from the cabinet you still have copper wires to individual houses (or if you are sufficiently wealthy you can have the fibre optic direct to your house!). Ordinary householders would have the ability to access up to 50Mbps, with an average of 30Mbps, so our communities would experience a ten fold improvement in speed. There would also be improvements in reliability for the internet and the telephone.

Of course, this is wonderful and you want it now. However, this is where you get the bad news.

Our exchange at Seend is old and needs updating. BT is upgrading exchanges slowly, but Seend and Devizes are not currently in their plans for an upgrade. Why? Because there are not enough customers to make it economic!

Happily that is not the end of the story; grants are available to help in installing the equipment in the exchange and the fibre optic cable to connect it to ourselves. We can work together with all the villages in the Seend exchange area to apply pressure to BT to encourage the neccesary system upgrade.

Happily however there is help at hand from those who have experienced these problems and already overcome them. For example, Rutland Telecom, formed by local residents in a village community in Rutland, is offering, for a price to arrange to install the appropriate equipment and to set up a village community company to run super fast Broad Band in our area. This local community company would sell IP services just like your provider, but the speed would be significantly faster and the price much the same as you pay now. If you are interested in the experiences of other villages please check out their web page: Rutland Telecom

What we need to do now is to find out if there is any interest in having fast Broad Band here, from there we can take it to the next step. I will be contacting the web pages of our surrounding villages to enlist their opinion, and already I have begun to contact Parish Councils who are considering the matter. If you are interested as a potential user or investor please Email me

Mike Wilson