Am absolutely overjoyed to discover the Milton Keynes Broadband Action Group web site.

I have written a number of letters over the years to the different stakeholders i.e. BT and NTL, pleading for some sort of intervention on behalf of Milton Keynes. Unfortunately, my own experiences with MP Brian White (who alas, never replied to any of my correspondences about this subject), left me feeling rather disillusioned with the man.

Will gladly lend my weight to your worthy cause.

Please let me know how I can become involved.

Kindest regards

Jon

I now have BB. Thanks or all you help. Power to the people !!!

Paul, Blanchland Circle, Monkston

Mike, Monkston

I applied for the pilot some time ago (sending a form to someone in MK Council) but have had no response whatsoever. So I am really nonchalant about what BT is doing or not doing really.

Regards,
Frances, Great Linford

[Try peter.bonham@milton-keynes.gov.uk He may be able to follow up your NTL Wireless application.]

Why is that? [Resources.]

Best Regards
Fuad

Well we were wrong: we were told that the cable was to long!

So we went higher to see if we could get some result, but whoever we spoke to we got the same reply. No one could give a good reply to my question, which is:
We live in Heelands, the neighbours to the left of us have it, and so do the ones to the right, the splitter box is in our meter cupboard, to which their phone lines run, we are all on the same exchange, but still we are the only ones in this court that still can't get it, this seems very unfair to us.

Do you have any idea what we can do as we seem to keep hitting dead ends?

[Call Serena]

Terry,  Heelands

My next door neighbour had Demon installed before BT even thought about saying NO.

We had a major fight with BT but won in the end! This was not an exchange equipment issue but a distance from the exchange problem and BT’s use of aluminium wires!

I had them check, and their answer was "Amber, requires more tests"..

Hopefully it is now available all over Monkston ??

[I do not know the state of Chicksands Avenue. See above entry. The good news is that new cable has been run in not far away.]

Many thanks.

Andy

When I applied for Broadband, I was told the signal was not strong enough and the engineer recommended that I wait six months and try again or move house!

That was approximately twelve months ago.

Good luck for the future,

Tony, Wellfield Court, Willen

I'm living on Wavendon Gate and have been trying to get broadband since day one. I have registered my request on the BT website and spoken several times to BT, same old story line too long etc.

I was told by BT that until 400 people in the area had pledged to subscribe they would not contemplate carrying out the works required to allow connection, it is more frustrating still as i have daughters on Caldecote and Fishermead who are both connected, and my business which is on the same 58**** Woburn Sands exchange enjoys the benefits.

I have recently subscribed to BT connect as the next best thing!
I would appreciate any ideas or help to get connected,

Colin, Wavendon Gate

They tell me that the exchange for me is at Bradwell Abbey and we are deemed to be out of the 5.5km needed for BB. I have spoken to BT and they have told me that they are extending the range to 6km in the new year.

Do you have any info on this? [The BT Planning rule is now 6km.]

Jackie

I live in Walton Park. My local telephone exchange is too far away so why can't you move me too a different telephone exchange that is closer?. For example people in Caldecott can get broadband and that's even further away from Bradwell Abbey telephone exchange. How is this possible? Are they on a different exchange? If so, could you move Walton Park numbers to a closer exchange?

This is what they sent back:

Due to the high costs involved, BT do not move lines to other exchanges in order to give them an ADSL broadband connection. Your line is connected to your exchange via an underground cable. To move your line onto another exchange, we would have to dig up the roads to reroute the line. Apart from the costs, there are also other issues to be considered, like the line length limits associated with ADSL broadband.

Regards
Esther Wallace
BT Wholesale, Broadband Deployment

I haven't seen that on your website so it may be interesting to have.

I don't honestly think you have to rewire a phone line to move it to another exchange, I think it's simply copy and pasting your number on a computer system plus if Caldecott is on a different exchange and right next to Walton Park they could just extend a wire from Caldecott coming into Walton Park. Also if we pay line rental costs for a line coming into the house the price we pay for that should cover any fixes/alterations to the line that are needed - so cost isn't an issue since we pay for the line.

Thank you for your time,

Jonathan.

[You raise many points. It may be useful to read this page.]

I live in Great Holm and have checked my post code for BT broadband in this area which confirmed that I can download at 256kbps and upstream at 128kbps dependent upon distance from local exchange. I have now discovered this is not true through my ISP AOL. Is there any info you can give me regarding this issue and also the location of my nearest broadband exchange.

Kind Regards

Mr Breese

It's amazing what you can channel down an old ISDN 128K line, but with 21 PCs hanging off it, web access can be more than a little bit slow....

Our phone connections come from Bradwell Abbey, which is well over 5km away, so at least part of Knowlhill should be red on your map. [I'll place a blob on the map!]

I also have an issue with my home exchange. I live in Woughton Park, which is also on a "Bradwell Abbey" number and the BT Broadband tester says it's too far from the exchange, which I have always accepted as Woughton Park is a long way from Bradwell Abbey. But having read your slip-ups page, I can't see why either Woughton Park or Knowlhill are too far from the physical location of the exchange in Fishermead.

Does anyone have broadband on a Bradwell Abbey number?

[Yes. All 7 exchanges in Milton Keynes are Broadband enabled. It's the cabling that's the issue. When BT designed the cabling for Milton Keynes they used a planning rule of -10dB loss at 1.6kHz. They reasonably used the thinnest, hence cheapest, cable they could and still comply with their planning rule.

This was fine for voice, but not for ADSL. The higher frequencies used by ADSL do not travel as far. That's why there are broadband "gaps" around the exchange areas in Milton Keynes.]

Seasonal regards

Ian

I had no joy when trying to extract a date – no surprise there !

Does this restriction apply to the whole estate, including the schools, Badminton centre etc? PlusNet mentioned the possibility of rerouting but apparently BT aren’t very helpful here either.

Regards,

Tony, Loughton

[I think Emerson valley should be fine for Broadband as there's a telephone exchange within the estate.]

I am interested in the idea of Wireless Broadband but am reluctant to have to sign up to NTL, having recently freed myself from their dial-up service which stopped working (permanent engaged tone) shortly before their wonderful cable TV service went down for nearly a week with no apology or explanation.

Changing my ISP was the advice I received from NTL's own 50p per minute helpline! I was more than happy to oblige.

Any information would be helpful.

Cheers,
John