BT customer quoted £45,000 for broadband upgrade

A couple hoping to kit themselves up with a speedier broadband service for their home and bed and breakfast business were shocked to receive an estimated bill of £45,000 by provider BT.

Ray and Frei Walker, the owners of a Victorian guest house in Cumbria decided they would take the plunge from their dial up service which they had been using for last nine years. However, living in a rural location they were told, if they wanted to make use of broadband they would need to install new equipment that would also serve others in the village.

An article by The Telegraph revealed the Walkers currently have two telephone lines serving the house – one for a phone and one for the internet – supplied by Digital Access Carrier System, or DACs, which means BT is able to deliver both lines from its exchange through one copper wire. The DACS box also serves fellow villagers’ telephone lines.

It was thought that if they got rid of one phone line, it would free up capacity for broadband. However, BT advised them if they removed the current box, which is fitted to a telephone pole in the village, they would have to install larger capacity equipment and cables for the entire village.

The quoted cost took into account the removal of the existing box plus “40 joint bosses, 437 metres of fibre copper cable and 1,341 metres of mole ploughing cable”. “It’s a farce, and obviously we’re staggered," said Mr Walker. “We don’t have £45,000 and if we did we wouldn’t spent it on this.”

Speaking to the press Mr Walker accused BT of abusing its network monopoly: “They seem to be wanting us to pay for equipment which will upgrade the whole village, and that’s what makes it more galling. We just want the same broadband service as everybody else in the village but BT won’t even let us have that.”

The government has pledged to provide the UK, including rural areas with a minimum broadband service of 2Mb by 2012. It’s an offer that’s often been snubbed as an inadequate and sluggish gesture. However, for Mr Walker, the prospect of being offered 2Mb would be very welcome.

Speaking on his internet troubles, Mr Walker explained: “It’s a huge problem – even to get to the home page on something takes forever, so both the business and my wife and my daughter [both teachers] are stuffed. People send you emails with attachments and it can take 25 or 30 minutes to download before you can open it. It’s a disaster.”

BT told the Walkers it was prepared to pay up to £8,000 for the cost of the work, but said it would pass on the remaining balance of £37,00 to Phone Co-Op, which unfortunately said it would pass onto the couple.

According the report in The Telegraph, a Phone Co-Op spokesman said it had hit “a brick wall” in its attempts to negotiate with BT Openreach.