Milton Keynes Broadband Action Group

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Tuesday 13th January 2004 

How to apply for Broadband in Monkston...

This will be of interest if you live in Monkston.

Your phone line will probably be connected using fibre optic if your house is near one of those grey boxes set near the footpath. You will probably find BT's on-line broadband checker is unhelpful. It will say broadband is unavailable, even though you should be able to get it.

A short story...

A resident emailed. She wrote: "I live in Tewkesbury Lane,  Monkston. (01908 123456) ...any chance that we might be able to get broadband at this address?"

I replied saying her phone line was fibre; and where there was fibre, copper cable has now been installed; and that most of us were now connected. I directed her to BT's Serena.

Here's Serena's prompt reply:

I can confirm that your line is indeed fibre. There has been mixed success in getting fibre lines moved over to copper so that you can have a broadband service but hopefully it should be more straightforward now that the ISP's are a little more clued up.

What you need to do is apply via your chosen ISP and explain to them that you are currently are on a fibre line and wish to be converted to copper so that you can have broadband. Most will need to submit a manual order (called a CRF) and you may need to highlight this to them - the usual sticking point is that the ISP's will not know why your line indicates that broadband is not possible so you need to nudge them along at this point. The manual order for a copper conversion automatically instigates an engineering visit (so they can do the relevant techie stuff to switch you over) and then subject to the usual line tests, you should hopefully then be able to get broadband.

If you still have problems getting an order to progress, then please do drop me another line. There is nothing extra that I do at this end but I have 'contacts' and hopefully will be able to speak to the right people in the know.

All the best in your application.

Regards
Serena
 

My Inbox

I got a leaflet recently, and also saw your stuff [Stuff?] on the internet. I got irritated when I decided to look at getting Broadband, and realized I don't seem to be able to, despite looking at a range of providers.

Please let me know what more I can do to join to lobby whoever to try to add weight to the argument.

Cheers

Andy, Walton Park

 
I happened to be on the roof of The Gables, Wolverton, at the same time as a couple of engineers were up there doing a wireless broadband initial survey this week. Not having seen your web site (I'm broadbanded, thank you very much :-) ), I didn't take too much notice of the company they were working for, as the main topic of conversation was what antenna was what, and who it belonged to and other tech talk.

Just to let you know things appear to be moving on top of The Gables for wireless broadband, (I assume).

Regards,
Your Local Friendly Base Station Engineer :-)
 
I had a nightmare trying to anything apart from 56k dial up access...

Apparently my house is too far away from the exchange in Wolverton to get broadband...Blue Bridge to Wolverton must be about a 5 minute walk at the most....

I am apparently too far away from the exchange to get ISDN access of any kind.... It's not like I live in the sticks or anything?

I work in IT and would love to have broadband access at home and am considering moving house just to get broadband....

Kind Regards

Richard, Blue Bridge
 

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