New Forest Broadband event

Brand New Forest Broadband Survey 2013

We need your help to help improve Broadband speeds in the New Forest.

Work will soon be commencing to improve Broadband speeds in the New Forest.

Hampshire County Council together with district and borough partners (including New Forest) has invested £5 million in the project and they were awarded the same figure from Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK). BT is contributing an additional £3.8 million towards the cost of installing the new fibre infrastructure; bringing the total investment in the project to just over £13.8 million.

The contract will deliver superfast (24MB) to 90% of properties in Hampshire and a minimum of 2MB to the remaining 10%.

Through this survey we wish to understand more about your existing broadband provision, any limitations you may have and the way in which you’d like to see things in the future.

Please spare 5 minutes by completing the survey below. All answers will be treated confidentially.

http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e7jp5iiwhh1zzuxn/start

41 Comments

  1. Sally Arnold on 20/06/2013 at 4:51 pm

    The main problem I have is not being able to email the National Park. When they changed their website this is when the difficulty began.

    I believe it only affects customers on network.

  2. andrew tinsley on 20/06/2013 at 6:17 pm

    Currently poor speeds in Hordle area – hoping for improvement .- frequent interruptions in service early am and early evening

  3. Margaret Weston on 20/06/2013 at 6:18 pm

    Terrible broadband up here at Fritham. Keeps dropping out and very slow.

  4. Dr Peter Chandler on 24/06/2013 at 9:19 am

    Increasing people’s ability to engage in home working in rural villages provides huge benefits in terms of reduced commuting, increased spending in local businesses and the development of “Community”. This is especially true in “dormitory” villages such as Wellow. The need for high speed or even reliable broadband would have a significant impact in the principal villages close to the M27/A36 corridor.

  5. Phil Stenner on 24/06/2013 at 12:41 pm

    Slow at times, a more dependable broadband service is what we need

  6. David Smethurst on 25/06/2013 at 4:48 pm

    High speed broadband not even on the horizon in Balmer Lawn. Existing copper wire not stable enough for BT’s own on demand service BTVision. Infinity please, asap. Family of teenagers, 10 devices on our home network.

  7. Freestyle Web Design on 25/06/2013 at 9:18 pm

    Get a regular 4-5mb down, but during business hours upload speeds can get as low as 90kbps up ! Working as a web designer from Lyndhurst can be a bit of a struggle at that pace when uploading the hundreds of files needed for a modern site to be built – willing to do anything to help get the speeds up there!

  8. Charles Leith on 27/06/2013 at 2:14 pm

    Running my first internet business from 2003 to 2009 was easy in the New Forest. Since then I’ve launched a new internet business and am at the point of moving out of the area because the intenet speed I get is now appalling; try using the internet in Frogham when the schools get out – waste of time. Grinds to a halt. Pathetic…

  9. Barry Abbott on 27/06/2013 at 2:31 pm

    I need faster internet service for business and personal matters. this is vital to me!!

  10. David Summerfield on 27/06/2013 at 7:24 pm

    My up load & down load speeds are 0.4 & 0.6 in Mockbeggar ,all tasks are very slow and the service drops out at peak times. Being at the edge of Hampshire we seem to be the forgotten .!!!

  11. Tony Bishop-Weston on 27/06/2013 at 7:44 pm

    speeds…..in…..Beaulieu……………..can…………………be…………………ssoooooooo……………………slow

    Only wish people drove on the roads the same speed as our broadband then we wouldn’t have so many dead ponies and donkeys

  12. New Forest Nutrition on 27/06/2013 at 7:45 pm

    PS Would like it soon please

  13. J A C Sykes on 28/06/2013 at 9:04 am

    Faster broadband would save me time and therefore money.

  14. Patricia Banks on 28/06/2013 at 5:22 pm

    When I read about ‘high speed broadband’ should I remind myself that I live in a lovely rural area where everything moves very slowly?

  15. Christina from New Forest Life website on 28/06/2013 at 6:29 pm

    My http://www.newforest-life.com website has been a bit of a struggle to build over the last few years. As I use all of my own photos I’m always concerned they will upload correctly. So far so good and as I’m not used to having good speed I have got used to everything going at snail pace. I’m excited to hear that speed may improve soon. Speedier broadband for home based business is a boost for both the short term and long term economic growth of all of the UK. bring it on! – please asap

  16. jsmc on 28/06/2013 at 10:41 pm

    until a couple of months ago, speed was appallingly and most irritatingly slow – could go off and do another job while waiting! i now have an individually prepared windows 7 ( which i don’t enjoy as much as xp) but the speed is hugely improved.(Wootton)

  17. A Norman on 29/06/2013 at 6:33 am

    Definitely slow to load on many occasions and slow during peaks, when school is out, so would welcome faster broadband here in Burley.

  18. John Price on 29/06/2013 at 8:21 am

    I am now retired so no longer use our poor broadband for sending reports etc. But living in Woodgreen for 25 years I have had to endure miserable broadband speeds – currently 0.5 Mbs on average. I contrast this with a the situation of a former colleague, now retired to a remote area of southern Sweden who has speeds of 100 Mbs (WHICH REALLY IS SUPERFAST)!!!
    For local business to compete effectively we need the proposed fibreoptic extension across the New Forest asap. I hope that Woodgreen will be included in the 24Mbs area.

  19. David on 29/06/2013 at 10:38 am

    We get reasonable speeds here but then as I understand it we are less than a mile from the BT ‘exchange’ (there must be another word for it) and I presume we have copper cable connection – we get nearly 16 mb/s download but upload speeds are truly pathetic – updating a website is very hit and miss – I realize most of the traffic is needed to download but increasing upload speeds has to be a priority now

  20. Robin Ford on 29/06/2013 at 1:15 pm

    Very poor connection with frequent interruptions ..frustratingly slow ….it is about time that something is going to be done about it .

  21. R F Scott on 29/06/2013 at 2:11 pm

    Using the current internet connection is extremely frustratng as the internet connection from my house via my BT line is slow, unreliable and subject to failure. Films, skype and similar are impossible.
    A fast reliable connection would be extremely welcome

  22. John Nutt on 30/06/2013 at 12:03 pm

    3 years ago living in a Buckinghamshire village I got a speed of 20 day & night.What a shock when I move when I moved to Everton. A speed of 4 between midnight & 8am ,after that lucky to get 2 & when schools finish forget it.
    People are now factoring in broadband speed when considering buying a house.
    So many facilities are denied us like IPlayer & streaming services.

  23. David Plumpton on 30/06/2013 at 3:20 pm

    I live at Frogham and the broadband is much too slow. I need an improved service to be able to compete in business and be at the level of others outside of the New Forest who enjoy high speed broadband.

  24. Kay Eyre on 01/07/2013 at 9:31 am

    The lack of a decent broadband signal is impeding the service we can offer our customers as we cannot use hand held devices to take orders and process card payments in all areas inside the pub let alone outside in the beer garden.

  25. Graham Baker on 09/07/2013 at 8:36 am

    I have a significant requirement for broadband and manage with BT at present. I know Government made changes to the planning arrangements for broadband and have to say there is no advantage to the District if improvement broadband is gained at the expense of a load of overhead cables across countryside and forest which reduces the area’s attractiveness to incoming businesses and visitors.

  26. ian norris on 10/07/2013 at 9:58 am

    Has taken ages just to log in and send this email this morning !!!!!! Thank goodness we don’t rely on this to run a business.

  27. Doug Dodd on 11/07/2013 at 10:12 am

    I have used the internet for many years for a vareity of reasons,education,travel and with the Dodd family spread about the world we use skype and other means of contact and attachments everyday. The present speeds of hardly 1.8MB means contact is often lost. This also aplies on BBC i/player

  28. Phred Crossby on 11/07/2013 at 5:04 pm

    Broadband regular drops out and the speed are atrocious. We use BT Vision and catch-up is useless as it takes as long to gather a few minutes of the video as it is to play it.

    Also my voluntary work with the BNSS needs me to pass wild life photos over the net and it takes ages.

    Frustrated of Bransgore!

  29. Dr Henry Goodall on 17/07/2013 at 9:48 am

    I strongly endorse Dr Chandler’s comments. However, all ISPs depend on BT for cable transmission to customers’ homes. If you think that you are being deliberately discriminated against because you live in a rural area, you’re right!
    I have had serious problems for most of the past 18 months, with line speeds often 0.1-0.3 mb/sec. and often no Internet service at all, after heavy rain, for several days, presumably due to the faulty old copper cable insulation, which has degraded with age. These have now been sorted out,but only after I switched my phone to Orange/EE, the same as my ISP, and after 5 BT engineer visits and my letter containing detailed evidence of line speeds, to the Operations Director of EE. I now have 2-7 mb/sec on a changed line (my previous business line), which is acceptable but not yet good.
    There are four main problems for everyone living away from main roads in the New Forest:
    1. So called ‘Superfast Broadband’ will only be installed between BT exchanges, when it eventually arrives, not between local exchanges and rural homes.
    2. BT is VERY reluctant to repair/replace 50-plus year old copper cable between exchanges and rural homes. Basically they won’t do it, so intermittent faults caused by old cable with faulty insulation will not change or improve in the foreseeable future.
    3. During my prolonged investigations, I discovered that my own old residential line had had over 500 ‘faults’ reported internally within BT, of which I was unaware.
    If BT finds numerous ‘faults’ on telephone lines, after a few weeks, it ‘caps’ (downgrades) the line speed to a maximum speed of 0.12 mb/sec, enough for telephone use but useless for e-mail, BUT BT DOES NOT TELL CUSTOMERS. Therefore, BT is charging customers for a service which it knowingly and deliberately fails to provide – in any other business this would be classified as fraudulent.
    4. Line speeds depend on overall usage in the local exchange, which may not have been ‘upgraded’ to take sufficient Internet/data traffic for current usage, i.e. when more people are using the Internet, via a single exchange, the speeds drop, often to a level where Internet usage is impossible, for some users. This is particularly true if many users are streaming video or trying to upload large files. While city users are reasonably well served, rural exchanges generally have less capacity and older equipment. We will be among the last people in England to be provided with so called ‘Superfast Broadband’ between exchanges, unless we make it sufficiently uncomfortable for BT that they are forced to alter their plans.

    Broadband and a reliable Internet service have now become essential for a normal business and residential life, similar to the status of the telephone in the 1960s and 1970s. This requirement will increase with an ageing rural population, less able to travel and needing more home delivery of goods and services, ordered via the Internet.
    I suggest that everyone in our rural communities, who has a slow service, should write to their MP (as well as their ISP) to complain. If enough people do so, we may achieve an acceptable service earlier than otherwise will be the case.

  30. Albert Goodfellow on 17/07/2013 at 3:00 pm

    The intern speeds available to Woodlands Road are so unreliable through old copper wiring from
    Ashurst telephone exchange. We have a Youview box and cannot use it to it’s full potential. As for receiving BT Sport we can only live in hope.

  31. Gibson on 22/07/2013 at 3:45 pm

    Broadband in suburban Milford on Sea worse than in remote rural Spain 25 years ago. Upload speed averages > 0.30, just. (I have an Ofcom ‘Sam Knows’ box on my line).
    Quite impossible to watch BBC News at any time.
    Mobile signal strength awful here too.

  32. John Illsley on 24/07/2013 at 3:09 pm

    The broadband speed around the East Boldre/Beaulieu area is a disaster,so much so that in order to have a proper connection to the outside world we have had to install a satellite link to the IOW at considerable expense.

  33. Fiona Gover on 26/07/2013 at 9:01 am

    It is so frustrating when government bodies insist that you use the internet to access information from them and correspond with them when in this area we have such appalling internet service.

    All VAT returns now have to be completed on line. The British Cattle Movement service have moved to online registration of cattle births and movements (at present there is still a telephone option which is not practical if you have a number of registrations to make). We recently received a notification from Defra that in future, updates of amendments to RPA compliancy requirements will only be posted on line and it is our responsibility to access them.

    These are all legal requirements and we are put at a serious disadvantage, even liable for fines and more, as we do not have reliable internet service. One obvious answer is to pay someone to do this for you but this is an additional overhead that few small businesses can wear. As a small rural business we are being discriminated against because we do not have an adequate broadband service to comply. I am sure there are many other small rural businesses and farmers all over the country who are in a similar situation.

  34. Elwyn Greenland on 26/07/2013 at 10:53 am

    Can get 4mb/s and 600kb/s on occasions if I’m lucky. I’m 2 miles from my local exchange – pity those another 2 miles further away at Lepe Beach!

  35. P H.. on 27/07/2013 at 4:09 pm

    I have 4.47mb from Romsey xc to Wellow….with Downloads of 3.8mb….uploads of 0.56mb since BT replaced low-insulation overhead main & drop cables some 2-3 years ago when spiders-webs in junction-boxes were causing crackling and interference especially when rain was falling and humity was high….plus very lead covered cabling being damaged by wind-driven New Forest branches.

  36. AMANDA CHURCHER on 30/07/2013 at 1:45 pm

    I run my International buisness from home and broadband is essential. I live in Beaulieu and often during a Skype call the connection is lost. Not professional at all and should not hapen in this day and age.

  37. Mark Blunt on 09/08/2013 at 2:39 pm

    In Ibsley speeds never exceed .8mb. During work hours the many small home based businesses demands reduce this to under .5mb with drop outs.

    The electricity cables radiate large amounts of interference generated by the equipment used by a number of businesses which reduces the quality of the internet signal over the copper phone cables.

    One firm in particular using electronic equipment generates a large noise over the whole radio spectrum from 150 kHz to 30 mhz.

    BT are very evasive about the chances of internet ever reaching 2mb. The 1950’s phone network is mentioned as needing major new investment.

  38. Stephen Mount on 11/08/2013 at 7:25 am

    BT’s so called internet service on the Sway/Hordle border is pathetic and scandalous. I work from home and watch the BT-logo’d pigeons flying in and out with each packet of data!

  39. J Cameron on 12/08/2013 at 8:34 pm

    Missed the deadline for this survey, but can I put a flag up for Marchwood, where we are lucky to get 1 Mbps!! Very frustrating when we can see Southampton City Centre just across the water!! Can’t we just run a cable under the water instead of having to rely on our connection to Totton?

  40. Rob on 21/08/2013 at 10:01 am

    Does anyone know when the speeds will be improved in Everton, we only moved from New Milton where we had fibreoptic. its terrible broadband but a lovely place to live.

    • Matt Callaghan on 21/08/2013 at 10:35 am

      Hi Rob,

      Hampshire County Council are planning the work in 8 phases that will last until the latter part of 2015, HCC are not able to give details of individual areas at this stage and when they will be connected (or indeed whether they’re in the superfast programme). Instead details of each phase will be annouced shortly before work begins in each areas.

      I think you’re best bet in the near future is to keep an eye on http://www.hants.gov.uk/broadband as we’re told more detailed information will be posted here in the near future.

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