The Conservative MP for Maidenhead and Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Shadow Minister for Women, Theresa May, has blasted BT for excluding Twyford residents in its trial of 'up to' 2Mbps Broadband Enabling Technology (BET). BET was re-introduced last September 2009 (here) and improves rural broadband coverage because it can reach distances approaching 12km on a fixed phone line.

Existing broadband ADSL technologies tend to run into increasingly serious performance problems after about 6.5km, consequently anything that improves this reach would be welcome. However BET is a very expensive technology to deploy and thus the initial trial was only opened to 10 areas and a select group of customers.

However the closed nature of BT's BET trial has not gone down well with everybody. A report on Getwokingham's site claims that complaints from residents of Hurst and Waltham St Lawrence in Twyford have been "rife", prompting Theresa May to react.


Frankly this is a bit unfair on BT because the technology is in a pilot phase. It is only natural to test something new in a more controllable environment before expanding its reach or opening it up for commercial use.

This seems to be only the latest in a somewhat misjudged bout of rhetoric by local politicians against technologies that BT either have under trial or are just barely beginning to rollout. Developing and testing any new service takes time and it is good practice to make sure the service is viable and works before deployment.

Still, BT is not totally without blame; saying that the service would be available to UK ISPs on a fair and equal basis probably didn't help its position. BT informs that, if possible, it will extend BET to additional lines. Ironically at this stage it's not even clear if BET will become a fully fledged commercial product or whether ISPs will take it due to the high costs.

In other news BT has quoted a broadband setup fee of £45,000 to a couple living in Dufton, near Appelby, Cumbria (here). BT broadband access is available to residents covered by the local exchange but it has reached capacity and cannot take on any new users. The result is that Mr and Mrs Walker are effectively being asked to pay for the capacity upgrade, which would cover other residents too. Now that does deserve some serious criticism.