People keeping close tabs on BTs broadband ADSL pre-registration scheme will be familiar with this. Exchanges that hit their trigger levels are finding longer and longer upgrade delays:

In the past these "ready for service" (RFS) dates have typically been just a few months in the future, but this time many communities have learned that it could be the middle of 2005 or beyond before broadband reaches them.

A total of 185 RFS dates were set by BT in this latest exercise. The majority of upgrades, 121, will take place in 2004, but 62 exchanges will be left until the next year -- including that will have to wait until the summer and autumn of 2005. Two exchanges will not be upgraded until 2006. In one case, this is because BT must time its work with the building of a new motorway.

Taken as a whole, these 185 dates show that the process of getting broadband is becoming increasingly drawn-out.

The ZDNet item highlights a number of BTs reasons for the increased waiting times, one being that some exchanges require key backhaul upgrades to cope with the new bandwidth. In other cases BT is being forced to wait for specific building work to complete.

Sadly this is unlikely to help those stuck with a wait that could extend up to and over a full year before they can connect. On the bright side, BT hopes that "some" exchanges can be upgraded sooner.