Broadband Outages at Rural PostOffices Highlight Our Internet Dependence
The broadband outages suffered by several Post Offices around the United Kingdom, which also crippled computerised systems (e.g. pension payments, council tax bills, parcel processing etc.), have highlighted how dependent we are becoming on internet access and how little margin for error exists at some of our most vital institutions.
Most recently the residents of West Butterwick, a small civil parish village in North Lincolnshire (England), found that they could not access vital payment and billing services after their local Post Office on North Street was left without a broadband connection for five whole days. As a result the only thing it could do was sell stamps (here).
Maggie Wootton, West Butterwick Resident, said:
“There’s a real problem with the outreach Post Office. They have not got a broadband connection again. A lot of people in the village do not have transport and some elderly residents are not able to get public transport to get to Scunthorpe.
It’s happened before and when it does happen they cannot even send parcels out. All the Post Office can do is sell stamps. We have got pensioners who have to get their pensions using a card. It’s affecting people … young mums use the outreach facility to get their money and elderly people use it to get their pension.”
A similar situation arose at the Post Office in Bellingham (Northumberland, England) over Christmas when an apparent mistake by BT, which had installed a new internet service in the buildings upstairs flat, resulted in the local division being left without a broadband connection on both of its phone lines for eleven days (here).
The Bellingham situation soon became so serious that the local sub-postmistress, Wendy Telfer, even offered to lend her own money to any “really desperate” customers.
Wendy Telfer, Bellingham’s sub-Postmistress, said:
“Whatever goes through the system I get paid on. Put nothing in, I get nothing back. In this day and age, you know, it’s absolutely ridiculous.”
It is usually quite well understood that any telecoms service, especially broadband because it’s so vulnerable to a multitude of unpredictable variables in its environment (e.g. bad weather, poor wiring, road work mistakes), will at some point fail and need fixing. Sometimes even having a backup connection, as in the Bellingham situation, isn’t enough to completely avoid the problem.
Unfortunately when things do go wrong, especially if the connection isn’t fixed in a timely manner, then it usually doesn’t take long before the related problems begin to spiral out of control and a dangerous situation develops. Problems like this often hit the most vulnerable in society, such as pensioners, more than most. Simple things, such as having enough money to pay for food, are soon put at risk.
In urban areas there’s usually an alternative, such as Mobile Broadband, but in many rural areas this simply doesn’t exist and the coverage claims of most mobile providers often appear to be laughable. But more than that it highlights how dependent we have become on internet connectivity. Perhaps most surprising of all is how there often appears to be no manual alternative should that vital link fail.
Both the current and previous governments have put a lot of effort into getting people online, which is to be commended. However it’s clearly vital that there exist an alternative for when that connectivity inevitably fails. Perhaps this is something that the government should also be considering alongside their current digital strategy.
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What SLA’s did the Post Office’s have? Is this two post offices across the whole country?
Broadband is a best efforts service in terms of maintenance. If the connection is so critical to our post offices, why don’t they have dedicated connections that are monitored and with SLAs for repair etc?
Not even “best efforts” – it will be a “reasonable efforts” service.
Is five days to fix a fault “reasonable”? (Let alone eleven days for a fault caused by the provider itself)
lets face it unless you have more money than sense its hard to get something done without waving a few bills in front of ppls faces.. BT dont care as long as they are getting their money, and what are a few 100 houses going offline they have millions of others..
tbh l put this on the same par as whats happening elsewhere in government.. those at the end of the line who dont have the power to do anything are always the ones left paying for the problems at the end.
I’m not sure what any of that meant to be honest
… what it boils down to is the only places that get quick fault resolutions are those in wealthier areas. the ones who pay for much faster net connections.. it took a month to get my connection back when l was in wales and l lived in a rural area… it took three days when l lived on the outskirts of a town..
however l was told at the time my issues could have been fast tracked for a premium on top of the call out fees which l should never have been charged (good job l claimed them back)
I do not believe that for an instant – that the poor get less of a service / worse response times than the rich
Maybe it’s just I’m getting older, but we seem as a nation to have developed a child-like self-centredness and seem less able to cope these days; or may be it’s just that our grumbles, which would have been heard just by our family in-house or neighbours over the garden fence, are now heard by everyone with the benefit of modern media.
The services I remember used to break down far more frequently (and reliably every winter), and the scouts used to have an old motto “be prepared”, which served us well. Even now in the age when as a (not rich) retiree I do everything electronically, I still keep a small cash float and a tinned/frozen food backup to cover me for at least a week, candles and a wood stock. I know that families live apart much more (as mine do), but I sometimes think that the “need” to keep in touch electronically can be used as a conscience-saver for “at least I don’t have to visit ’cause I’m too busy (i.e. have other things I’d rather be doing)”. I think that just about everything is much better than it used to be. Am I so unreasonable?
Well said! Too many people seem to have an in-built sense of entitlement, whether it’s for material things, for a Rolls Royce service fr their low cost broadband or whatever. We all know, or should do, that you don’t get something for nothing, yet some act surprised at this and immediately complain, reach for the latest “no win, no fee” info etc.
Back more directly on-topic, these post offices appear to need communication as a business critical service, yet opt to use something without SLAs and instead with best-efforts maintenance. Is their ISP at fault or are they?
Who would the Post Office use as their ISP…
http://www.postoffice.co.uk/broadband-standard
BT are THE major obstacle for many people in rural areas getting a reasonable service. If you are a BT customer you get attention, if you are not its tough and a response of “you do realise there is a £100 call out charge plus £60 an hour if the problem turns out to be your own”. Many people, particularly the elderly, are too frightened to take the chance even when they are 95% certain it is a BT problem. Personally I think it is a deliberate marketing strategy on BT’s behalf. What a good way to get people to become a BT customer.
Those charges apply if you are a BT customer as well.