The chairman of BT, Sir Mike Rake is the only person in his Oxfordshire villiage of Hambleden that has got broadband, and as expected this has not pleased his neighbours.
The locals of the village have been waiting for around 5 years for broadband, while Sir Mike only moved in around a year ago and has already got broadband.
His broadband connection is due to his participation in BT’s trial of Broadband Enabling Technology (BET), which although is only a limited trial it is estimated that it costs around £3,000 for each line.
BET is designed to help deliver a stable broadband connection of 1Mb to locations that are 12km from the exchange and largely unable to receive broadband due to their remoteness, these places are also known as “not spots”.
A local resident, Mr Ashworth, asked to be put on the trial but was told that no one would be added until next year. BT said that they quite often use their own staff when running trials and this is nothing new.
The frustration and anger amongst locals is easy to understand, they have been waiting for broadband for years yet when the chairman of BT moves in he gets broadband very quickly.