Olympics embargo means 18 month delay on superfast broadband in Weymouth

10:12am Wednesday 18th July 2012 in Local News By Rachael Burnett

DOWN THE LINE: BT engineers working at one of the new broadband cabinets DOWN THE LINE: BT engineers working at one of the new broadband cabinets

SUPERFAST broadband in Weymouth due to go live this summer will not be coming until December 2013.

In September last year BT announced that fibre-optic broadband would be available in both Portland and Weymouth by the start of the Olympic Games as a legacy of the sailing events.

The service went live on Portland in February but the company has now announced that it will not be coming to Weymouth until next year.

A BT spokesman said the work in the town is not expected to start until after the summer and will take more than a year to complete.

On the company’s website it states that the faster Infinity broadband is not scheduled to go live in Weymouth until December 2013.

The spokesman said: “There is an embargo on construction work of this type in Weymouth until after the Olympics.

“We expect to start as soon as the Olympics are over, but the considerable amount of work involved laying new fibre cabling and installing street cabinets in the town means that the new services cannot now be available until 2013.

“We will provide a further update as the work progresses.”

Mike Weaver, who is Openreach built project manager for fibre to the cabinet, said that Weymouth’s roll-out would take place after the Games due to the disruption required for cabinets to be installed.

Rob Russell, of Weymouth, said he recently renewed his contract with BT based on the fact that their Infinity availability map had listed Wey-mouth as being ‘enabled’ from June 30.

He said: “I am not a business user, just an ordinary customer.

“When I checked the map again on June 30 Weymouth had moved to December 2013.

“My brother who lives on Portland informed me that BT had just doubled his Infinity speed from 20mb to 40mb.

“Those of us living in Weymouth get 2 to 4mb if we are lucky.

“When the wires must pass through Weymouth to get to Portland and Weymouth is the major population centre I cannot understand how BT can do this.

“So much for Olympic legacy, this will put Weymouth a year behind the rest of Dorset.”

In February, BT pledged that its new super-fast network will pass another 100,000 premises across the county by the end of this year.

The other locations, including Bournemouth, Poole, Dorchester, Ferndown, Blandford and Verwood, are all still on target.

A Dorset County Council spokesman said there is an embargo on any construction work on the Olympic network until September 14.

She said: “We are encouraging utility companies not to do any planned work in Weymouth.”

Comments(41)

maximan says...
10:19am Wed 18 Jul 12

Broadband speed on the island is currently pooh....but what the heck I'm only a paying customer not a Lithuanian sailor..

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LaughingGnome says...
10:19am Wed 18 Jul 12

“So much for Olympic legacy, this will put Weymouth a year behind the rest of Dorset.”

Good job you don't live on a sub-exchange like Preston, Upwey or anywhere else, as they won't be getting is anytime soon either..

Chickerell has truely shocking speeds, and it's disappointing that with all the new roads that have been put in (including the Chickerell link road, and the new Littlemoor Road), that fibreoptic provisions weren't laid at the same time. The government should be forcing companies to lay infrastructure when digging up existing roads or putting in new roads.

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iampuzzled says...
10:20am Wed 18 Jul 12

I get about 19Mb/s now on the outskirts of Weymouth, my son in Upwey on Dorchester Road gets similar figures.

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jmc1 says...
10:25am Wed 18 Jul 12

iampuzzled wrote:
I get about 19Mb/s now on the outskirts of Weymouth, my son in Upwey on Dorchester Road gets similar figures.
What isp are you with to get them speeds ??

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iampuzzled says...
10:34am Wed 18 Jul 12

I am with Plusnet, ADSL2
My son is on Talk Talk LLU and finds it very suitable for his web design business.
Google 'exchange search' to find out what is available at your local exchange.

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iampuzzled says...
10:43am Wed 18 Jul 12

Your speed at your house also depends on the physical length of the cable between your house and the exchange,
You can sometimes speed up your internet by removing the 'ring wire', a very easy job if like me, you have been working with computers since 1963 (:o)).
Google 'Improve your adsl broadband connection speed', but be aware that if you make mistakes BT will charge to fixit.

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bigrand says...
10:52am Wed 18 Jul 12

I get 13 mb with sky as they have done LLU In the exchange. Check the site 'Sam knows'

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rjimmer says...
10:58am Wed 18 Jul 12

iampuzzled wrote:
I get about 19Mb/s now on the outskirts of Weymouth, my son in Upwey on Dorchester Road gets similar figures.
What speed tester do you use?

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Top Gear says...
10:59am Wed 18 Jul 12

I get approx 4 mbs download speed in Chickerell using Sky.

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iampuzzled says...
11:12am Wed 18 Jul 12

Speedtest.net

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jmc1 says...
11:20am Wed 18 Jul 12

I live in the Weymouth area with Talk Talk llu and the max i can get is 5.2 mbps,the max that Talk Talk says for this area is up to 8 mbps

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PortlandYoof says...
11:47am Wed 18 Jul 12

"When the wires must pass through Weymouth to get to Portland and Weymouth is the major population centre I cannot understand how BT can do this."

Unfortunately that's not how it works... (At all). The cabinets on Portland link back to the PORTLAND exchange. The Weymouth exchange has nothing to do with it. The new fibre-optic cabinets on portland are connected directly to the portland exchange, no new cables are run from Weymouth to Portland...

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Gixxer says...
12:45pm Wed 18 Jul 12

Move to Portland. I've just moved from a ISP who was about 6mb to BT Infinity Broadband..chuffed as nuts now im getting 24mb+ download speed. :)
Speaking to the engineer, this was down to the Olympics being on Portland. Thats why apparently Weymouth does not yet fully support the fibre optic Infinity.

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islandman says...
12:50pm Wed 18 Jul 12

Some people might find this useful, just copy & paste the url

http://fttc-check.al
c.im/

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Steve_ITSOEZE says...
2:09pm Wed 18 Jul 12

maximan wrote:
Broadband speed on the island is currently pooh....but what the heck I'm only a paying customer not a Lithuanian sailor..
You don't automatically get the faster speeds maximan, you have to sign up to an ISP that is offering Fibre Optic on the island such as Talk Talk or BT.
I'm currently with TT and I'm now getting between 50-60 meg download and about 13 meg upload speeds

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scubadude says...
2:16pm Wed 18 Jul 12

4.4Mbps up and 0.3Mbps down on the best available broadband on the Granby... good thing I'm only running a business, get 8Mbps on cheapo home broadband in Weymouth, don't see why you need more than that as it happily streams HD movies etc, some people have just got to have the biggest/best for pub bragging rights

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CharlieBarley says...
2:45pm Wed 18 Jul 12

So, forgive my ignorance, but what BT are saying is that 2 weeks of sailing causes 18 months delay. Have I missed something?

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railwaychickenboy6 says...
2:56pm Wed 18 Jul 12

Another Olympic legacy up the swanny, I mean how many years have they had, I have nothing against the guys doing the work I blame top management

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maximan says...
5:45pm Wed 18 Jul 12

Steve_ITSOEZE wrote:
maximan wrote:
Broadband speed on the island is currently pooh....but what the heck I'm only a paying customer not a Lithuanian sailor..
You don't automatically get the faster speeds maximan, you have to sign up to an ISP that is offering Fibre Optic on the island such as Talk Talk or BT.
I'm currently with TT and I'm now getting between 50-60 meg download and about 13 meg upload speeds
nah...I'm not expecting anything better, its just my broadband seems to be alot worse lately...drops, hangs etc..

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weymouthfox says...
6:47pm Wed 18 Jul 12

So all the announcements by BT in the Echo about the Olympic legacy and improved broadband speed was a con?
Ansy why should three weeks embargo on roadworks cause an 18 month delay?
Who is telling lies here?

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Merrittpr says...
9:07am Thu 19 Jul 12

We are in Preston running broadband with Plusnet ADSL2. Get really decent download and upload speeds but does slow down at peak times. Just rang Plusnet when we knew the exchange was being upgraded to make sure we could benefit from the quicker speeds. Have to agree with the previous comments about cabling when all the other work was taking place. It would have been the logical thing to do but, then again, how many times do you see a new road surface being laid only to discover it being dug up the following month! Reading all the reports about super fast broadband coming to Weymouth for the Olympics it does sound like we have been conned. I too cannot see how an embargo on works during the Olympics can lead to such a long delay. Sounds like whoever is in charge of scheduling has cocked up big time.....

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dave.flowers says...
9:21am Thu 19 Jul 12

Just done a speed test using Speednet.com
Here I am in Dorchester, download speed of 12.5mbps, so that's not too bad here in Dorset, stop moaning peeps

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wessex-andy says...
9:30am Thu 19 Jul 12

Sounds like poor forward planning by BT to me.

Also, referring to the comment above about removing the bell wire;- doesn't this only work if you have digital telephones?

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Ageed / not agreed says...
10:34am Thu 19 Jul 12

I thought the Olympics were on Portland - that's why they get the broadband.

Or maybe its revenge - Weymouth stole the sailing academy (after it was Portland navy base) so Portland can steal broadband! fair is fair i think. Go Portland.

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iampuzzled says...
12:00pm Thu 19 Jul 12

wessex-andy
Re bell wire.
As I suggested, Google 'Improve your adsl broadband connection speed' and all will become clear.
Most modern phones use tone dialling and/or electronic ringers and therefore do not require this connection to be present, and will still ring if the ring wire is disconnected. Don't tell us that your telephone(s) have a circular dial (:o))

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GMax says...
12:38pm Thu 19 Jul 12

rjimmer wrote:
iampuzzled wrote:
I get about 19Mb/s now on the outskirts of Weymouth, my son in Upwey on Dorchester Road gets similar figures.
What speed tester do you use?
I always use http://www.speedtest
.net/
.
GMax

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thecomment says...
12:39pm Thu 19 Jul 12

2mb to 4mb is a blatant lie. I've had 20mb (that connects at around 16) for about 3 years in Weymouth provided by BT. I know for a fact that in all areas of Weymouth this service is available. It is unrestricted and has been 100% reliable. Might be worth shopping around before making bogus claims, or was the writer of the story ignoring all the happy customers out there?

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bigrye says...
12:47pm Thu 19 Jul 12

Think yourself lucky if you get anything above about 3mbps because that is the maximum that i can get up in poundbury,dorchester however bt website states that we get super fast broadband on 31st december 2012,

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iampuzzled says...
12:49pm Thu 19 Jul 12

Plusnet emailed me to let me know when the local exchange was going to upgrade to ADSL2 on the the 15th of March this year, sent a compatible router FOC and transferred me without a hitch.

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Desk24 says...
1:16pm Thu 19 Jul 12

Will BT bills be reduced by 30% for customers?

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dun hoping says...
1:29pm Thu 19 Jul 12

Another Olympic legacy for Weymouth , what a joke lol .
Must not moan as will be called a moaning minnie by a lot of Echo readers with S*** in their eyes .

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siratb says...
2:21pm Thu 19 Jul 12

I get about 14Mb/s down and almost 1Mb/s up from the preston exchange.

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captainsea says...
7:13pm Thu 19 Jul 12

I had BT Infinity 2 installed in May and was forecast a download speed of 53.8 Mbps and upload of 15Mbps. Within 10 days my service went down and took 2 weeks and phone calls 2- 3 times a day every day plus two engineer visits before the service was restored.

I can only achieve around 27.5Mbps download (half the forecast speed) and this drops out at peak times. I would suggest that the delay in installation may in the long run be a blessing in disguise

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annotator1 says...
9:39am Fri 20 Jul 12

This fast down/upload speed is great. I get between 14 and 19Mbps download so I can use up my BT allowance REALLY QUICKLY!
A good improvement on last years speed of 2Mbps, if you were lucky but not the fastest recorded by www.broadbandspeedch
ecker.co.uk
in our area.
If you stick with BT then if it stops working it is BT's cable, their line and their problem. Go elsewhere and push gets a shove when blaming the other party is the name of the game.

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bobby1966 says...
9:51am Fri 20 Jul 12

i was only getting 10 meg when i should have been getting 20 a simple net search showed it could be a ring wire problem causing interference . so i purchased a proper wall adsl filter with 2 seperate plugs which splits the voice and data from source for a cost of 10 pounds and it was very easy to replace with the box on the wall now my speeds are upto the recommended getting 19.2 d/l with 1.02 meg upload and i dont need to use those rubbish filters anywhere else in the house

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voiceof says...
7:43pm Fri 20 Jul 12

Westham 5.5Mbps down, about 750Kbps up on Sky LLU. Too slow for the lovefilm instant service that is currently being hawked around the streets!

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chesilbeach says...
1:33pm Sun 22 Jul 12

High speed broadband legacy.

Just run a speedtest here in Wyke Regis results:

Download speed 5.30 Mb/s

Upload speed 0.360 Mb/s

Just like everything else related to the Olympic legacy.1 big con.Wait till the Olypics are over everything will relapse back into its delapidated state.How nice it was to read in the Echo about the refurbished toilets at the top of Bond Street,I wonder how long the lady and gentleman who work as attendants are kept on when the the hype about the Olympics have died down.A few years ago there were Full time attendants at these loos,the loos were immaculate,and guess what the local council did,they got rid of them,and from then onwards they got worse and worse,that is why so much money has now had to be spent to get them back to a condition ready for the Olympic onslaught.I and my family have booked a holiday away to coincide with the Olympics here in Weymouth and Portland,as I know lots of other people who are doing the same.Hopefully when we return we will have Weymouth back for the local people,even though we will still have the worse traffic system in the UK.

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xsolidgoldx says...
4:00pm Mon 23 Jul 12

I am very sad to hear about this delay! I have been looking forward to fibre optic broadband since I heard it was coming to Weymouth. I agree that it doesn't make sense that Portland has it and we don't (when it goes through Weymouth anyway)

Comeon BT, its not every year we have Olympics as an excuse for us to request super fast broadband. Hire extra staff or something as I'm sure you have the funding!.

Brett
Freelance Photographer

www.bjmphotography.n
et

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LaughingGnome says...
10:30am Tue 24 Jul 12

Plusnet here, ~18MB in Preston/Littlemoor area.

Plusnet even told me the exchange was being upgraded, switched me over as soon as it happened, and sent me a free router. They also have Uk callcentres with knowledgeable staff.

Highly recommended...

Details here: http://tinyurl.com/p
lusnetbroadband

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Merrittpr says...
3:20pm Tue 24 Jul 12

Just spoken to Plusnet and negotiated another price as their discounted package they gave me had gone up. No hassle for them, have to pay a fraction more than I was paying but still about the same as Talk Talk. Great speeds still, peak time slows as with most Internet providers, but if you're keen you can always pay a little more so you get priority. Can't believe all you BT fans out there. Their broadband and calls packages are so expensive in comparison with similar speeds achieved. One sales guy from BT had the nerve to tell me you pay more because their equipment is of such a high standard etc. Free router upgrade from Plusnet and great customer services.....happy days.

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iampuzzled says...
5:15pm Tue 24 Jul 12

Guess who owns Plusnet?
BT
I like Plusnet's staff attitude to customers, whether Sales or Tech, they talk to you as if you are valued - not just another customer.

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