Cumbria couple disillusioned over broadband prices

This news has unearthed the broadband reality in the country. Before this everyone was of the view that currently the country had the best broadband services and coverage which would be multiplied over 10 times with the increase in the coverage of high speed optic fibre broadband connections. But when what happened with a couple in Cumbria hit the newsstands, the citizens came face to face with the fact that the dream of universal broadband in the country is still far from being realized.

Here’s what happened. Ray and Frei Walker stay in Cumbria and have their business in Dufton, near Appleby. Last week they applied to their telephone exchange, where BT provides access, for a switchover from dial-up connection to broadband connection and as a response were given a hefty bill of 45 thousand pound. This despite the fact that many residents in the village do have access to broadband connections but when Walker’s applied for one, they were refused on account of insufficient capacity and asked to pay a bill of 4k pounds if they wanted one.

As a result, they are forced to run their business on slow connection and face lots of problems. Walkers are really disillusioned over the whole issue and reported it to the daily media. What is un-understandable here is that why BT wanted them to pay for the network capacity of entire village. Because of low connectivity, Ray Walker isn’t able to even construct his business’ website which is a must for him.

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AT&T requests for reforms

The petition laid down by the AT&T Inc to the government seeks for the replacement of the age old telephone lines so that the new internet facilities can come pretty well into picture. The long term goals of the government can only then come into picture.

AT&T, the original U.S. phone operator, described the old lines as the orthodox system that follows circuit switching. No more expectations can be laid down on good speed if this kind of infrastructure is followed.


A transition from the "plain-old telephone service", known in the industry as POTS and the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is inevitable to get the real time implementation of the goals of the government to widen the scope of internet all over the nation.

According to the AT & T, with the advancement in the technology, the expectations of people are also rising. When it comes to internet they expect high speed without failure. This can be guaranteed only if the technology of POTS is replaced.

The year 2009 , recorded a revenue of about $123 billion. This high figure shows that almost all of the population is being rendered by its services. However, certain reforms need to be made urgently.

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