whe will broadband be available in rural areas

[Jam]

Does anyone know roughly (ie what year) broadband will be available in rural areas (villages etc). At the moment the only solution seems to be satellite, but as sky digital has proved can get dodgy when it rains etc. Anyone have any idea at all?

[Jam]

Ok my typing is very bad but please try to read it! I found out satellite is �59.99 a month compared to �29.99 a month for regual ADSL, what a rip off. Also satellite costs �899 for equipment and set up!!!

[ajmmac]

not sure about this--but bt website has a register for each exchange area so interested parties can log their names--if u register for the site u can check how many ppl in ur exchange area have registered an interest with bt--i have mailed them and also oftel asking how i can find out the number of bt subscribers in my area and how many are using the net as far as bt can tell--i also asked the criteria bt uses in determining if they consider it 'viable 'to offer broadband in a given area--not a lot i know but i have had no reply yet from bt or oftel

[cupra]

This is a useful site: http://212.23.2.198/ As I understand, even if the number of required registrations is reached BT will not enable the local exhange until a percentage of the registrations are turned into real orders. The other alternative seems to be wireless broadband - trials are ongoing in South Wales at the moment (although I'm not sure of the timescales involved). NB: It's not just rural areas that have problems - a friend of mine cannot get Broadband in Milton Keynes as BT installed Optical Fibre lines on his new estate and (at the moment) BT cannot use Optical Fibre lines for Broadband!