Sign up for superfast broadband – but be quick

RESIDENTS in Taynuilt and Oban who want to sign up to superfast broadband better act quickly after BT confirmed the state- of-the-art service is limited by connections available at the exchange, writes Louise Glen.

The news comes as the service went online in the village of Taynuilt but, with no notification from the telecoms provider, many customers are still unaware of what is now available.

Alan Canning, who lives in the PA35 postcode, said: ‘Only those looking for a new internet connection would be alerted to the fact the service was now available.

‘It seems a bit daft to me that not everyone can benefit from it at the same time.

‘The person I was speaking to at BT said there was only limited availability to the new connection and that I was lucky I had phoned that day.’

It is understood the majority of residents with a PA35 1JW postcode can benefit from faster broadband, but not all homes can be connected at the moment.

A BT spokesman could not guarantee that those homes which have missed out this time will get a connection in future. He said that connections ‘may’ come with future roll- outs.

A second postcode in Taynuilt, PA35 1JG, went live in the past fortnight and so all the homes in that postcode are able to connect to fibre broadband.

A spokesman for BT said: ‘In Taynuilt, as part of the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) programme, more than 300 homes and businesses have been connected to faster fibre broadband services.

‘Local people can place an order to upgrade to the faster speeds available by contacting their service provider.

‘More coverage is planned in the coming months as part of the programme which runs in the area until the end of 2016.’

The spokesman continued: ‘In Oban, a combination of BT’s commercial fibre deployment and work by the DSSB programme means that more than 4,300 premises can benefit from the faster speeds available.

‘Further coverage is planned as work in the area continues.

‘Around one in five homes have already upgraded and we would encourage more to do so to benefit from the faster speeds available.

‘People can check coverage at www.hie.co.uk/digital.’