Sluggish broadband on the Queen’s doorstep

SIR – You don’t have to live in a remote community to suffer the frustration of slow broadband (Letters, July 27).

I live five minutes’ walk from Buckingham Palace in central London, and there is no access to fibre-optic broadband anywhere in this area.

I contacted my equally frustrated MP about this. Seeking to explain the situation, he told me that “the public money made available to Broadband Delivery UK is not available for urban areas” and “BT are still citing planning problems as justification for not upgrading exchanges even though the planning requirements were almost entirely removed”.

He then lamented that “areas of Zone One central London will remain excluded from the high-speed network once the Government’s pledge for 95 per cent of the UK to be covered is met in 2017”.

He attached correspondence with Ed Vaizey, the former minister for culture and the digital economy, who explained the delay in upgrading the kerbside cabinets thus: “Support for upgrading cabinets in London is subject to constraints imposed by European guidelines which are designed to avoid distorting the efficient operation of commercial markets.”

Perhaps the glorious effects of Brexit will include more fibre-optic broadband in central London. Iwan Price-Evans London SW1 SIR – Our area recently had an eightday BT broadband failure, for which customers have been offered 66p in compensation.

In August last year I took out a oneyear fixed-price contract with the company for both telephone and broadband. It has since increased its prices for both twice, citing a clause in the small print which allows it to do so. The break-up of this wretched organisation is long overdue. Bob Stebbings Chorleywood, Hertfordshire