MSP attacks BT over ‘hopeless’ broadband service to Shetland

Isles MSP Tavish Scott has attacked BT for its “hopeless” broadband service to Shetland and is urging the company to appoint a high-powered team to sort out the connections.

In a statement this afternoon, he said he was still receiving complaints from Shetlanders with no internet connection or very slow speeds.

Mr Scott is writing to the chief executive of BT urging real, concrete action to iron out the problems. “The island’s services have been hopeless over the last while. Last night I was still getting messages saying households had no connection, or that the internet was barely useable. I just wonder what in earth is going on.

“We all depend on the internet at home, at school or for work. So if BT isn’t working Shetland suffers. I want the boss of the company to recognise that BT isn’t providing a service that people expect and, more to the point, pay for. I want him to send in a team to get it sorted.

“BT say they are investing billions in broadband infrastructure across the UK. But they haven’t solved the problem on the network that serves Shetland. BT hasn’t supported Shetland’s investment in direct fibre optic cable connections down to the UK mainland saying that their own system works. That has not been the case over these past days. Shetland expects solutions and BT need to step up to the mark and deliver.”

COMMENTS(2)

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  • Mike Grant

    • November 10th, 2010 14:43

    As of today (Tuesday 11th November) performance on BT broadband is still very poor in central Lerwick and elsewhere in Shetland, with many comments on the Shetlink forums. I’ve reported our own particular Internet problems to BT but they seem disinterested. Friends who are not with BT for broadband report no problems, so the problem would definitely seem to lie with BT. Rather unhappy that we should have to pay them at the regular rate while this semi-outage creaks ever on.

    REPLY
  • Barbara Mitchell

    • November 14th, 2010 17:07

    On Friday I heard on Shetland News that the problems with the broadband connection had been resolved, however when I tried to check my e-mail 20 minutes later I found that it was worse than it had ever been and I could not connect and was unable to do so till Sunday morning, how am I supposed to run an online business like this.

    REPLY

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