The answer to the question of how to get BT to deliver FTTC broadband is cash, though it doesn’t necessarily have to be your own cash.

As a grown up business BT only rolls out fibre to commercially viable areas. This is clear. There is no case for investment in areas where farmhouses are miles apart and it takes weeks to dig trenches to lay ducts to provide superfast broadband so that rural folks can provide details online of stock movements and check when the next market day is in town.

This is not a gripe. In fact I like to think that readers of this blog go away enriched, fortified and looking forward to the next time they need a reason to come back – perhaps the next cake baking competition results. They don’t want to read whinging prose. They need edification. Satisfaction.

Also BT business cases don’t just apply to rural areas. Only 500 or so exchanges are currently planned to be Superfast FTTC broadband enabled in the UK. My hometown of Lincoln isn’t one of them. It’s all about economics.

One of the biggest reasons people visit trefor.net is to find out when their area is going to be FTTC broadband enabled. I get private emails on the subject that I am happy to devote time to. Many are turned away forlorn. There is no visibility of their area being served at lightspeed. Bummer.  Life’s a bitch.

Now I am excited that I can advise readers on how to go about getting superfast FTTC broadband to their locale.

The answer as usual is cash. However this time it isn’t necessarily your own cash. BT responds to cash. The way to get FTTX to your own area is to talk to your local council. City councils, county councils, councils generally employ a lot of people, have lots of offices and pay lots of money for their communications services. We are talking broadband, Ethernet, telecommunications (phone calls) etc etc etc.

Since Ofcom got involved the (partially) demonopolized UK telecommunications market has become very competitive, so much so that BT has to work very hard to keep hold of Local Authority business. Presumably business it used to take for granted.

The very reliable word on the street is that BT is offering to FTTC enable local exchanges as part of the deal in pitching for attractive Local Authority communications tenders.

You shouldn’t take umbrage at this. You should mobilise you local council as appropriate. Your broadband future is in their hands. JFDI.

This does of course give me a dilemma. I too want to bid for Local Authority contracts, Lincoln City Council, for example, and here I go telling you how balance the bid in favour of BT!!! A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do.