subject: Carrier pigeons faster than some rural broadband [print this page] The use of carrier pigeons dates back to the Egyptians 3,000 years ago, but yesterday a race between 10 pigeons and a 300 Mb video file dispatched on a rural broadband connection highlighted the not-spot misery of as many as a third of the UK's homes.
The pigeons each carrying a USB key made their journey from a Yorkshire farm to Skegness around 120 miles away in an hour and fifteen minutes. In the same time, the broadband had only uploaded 24 per cent of the 5 minute video clip.
Campaigners said the stunt was being carried out to illustrate that broadband in some parts of the UK is still "not fit for purpose". BT continues to brief the press that 99% of UK homes could now get broadband but won't ever commit to the exact statistics on speed'.
However, this would still leave a minimum of 160,000 homes that are still excluded due to their distance from the exchange. Research commissioned by the BBC last year found that around 3 million UK homes were still below the Governments Universal Service Commitment of 2 Mbps.
Tom Wheeler, Business Development Manager for Tooway at Tariam said
"I think the public have given up waiting for the BT and Government to get to grips with the digital divide. We've seen a three fold increase in the numbers of enquiries for our domestic satellite internet solution Tooway in the last 4 weeks.
"Part of this is the exciting new Broadband Support Scheme being offered by the Welsh Assembly, but feedback from people on the phones is that they can't wait any longer being without broadband actually really affects peoples quality of life and their ability to do business.
"The Broadband Support Scheme gets homes and businesses in Wales online for free using alternative technology like our satellite broadband. For those in other parts of the UK, the investment of a couple of hundred pounds in a Tooway means they can get 3.6 Mpbs, wherever they are. We can usually get people up and running within about 7 days.
Lloyd Felton of the Rural Broadband Partnership agreed efforts to bring attention to rural broadband deprivation and low speeds are always creditable.
Lloyd said
"It's true that there are particular areas of the country that suffer much more than others."
"You've got massive deprivation this long-quoted digital divide'. As we all get more dependent on the internet, that divide gets wider.
"In the end it's who takes ownership and responsibility for coordinating how a parish is going to handle it what we say is that communities need to help themselves to broadband'."
Tariam, a Distributor of Skylogic's Europe wide Tooway solution, offers a free advisory service for villages and communities affected by lack of broadband assisting them to make the best use of grants and discounts to overcome rural broadband discrimination.
