Broadband on Long Lines.

South Witham Broadband (SWBB) can provide ADSL broadband over BT telephone lines and we are prepared to “have a go” where others may have failed or declined to even try.

BT's broadband technology ADSL sends a signal out from the telephone exchange down the wires and this signal gets weaker the further it travels. The frequency of this signal includes the AM radio bands (medium and long wave) and is prone to electrical and radio interference which in general is worse at night. Some lines will be too long to receive a service, but the large majority are not.

The telephone extension wiring in your house, the equipment connected to the line and the filtering used to separate broadband signals from voice signals can all have an effect of the speed of broadband that you can receive, or whether you can receive any broadband at all.

Our entry level 2 GB/month broadband service is not the cheapest you can find, but there are some substantial differences to consider. Firstly ours is a “variable rate” service that will go as fast as it can for the prevailing line conditions. Secondly we are based in SW Lincolnshire with telephone and email support offered by local people that use our broadband and are familiar with BT systems. Thirdly we can provide on-site support where we come to you to sort out problems – compare that with the cost and effectiveness of a premium rate call centre in India.

A number of service providers don't use the variable rate “up to 8M” service on long lines – AOL, BT, Pipex, Tiscali and probably others. If you have had a service from them it was probably fixed speed 512k which will either work or not, it can't slow down to (say) 384k if the line needs it to. Some ISPs will even tell you broadband isn't available if the checker gives the most pessimistic response – BT and Tiscali are known to do this. Until recently Orange and Talk Talk didn't use the variable rate service outside a few exchanges with their own equipment, so they too would have used a fixed speed service. The variable rate service has only been available since April '06.

What we're saying is that a previous failure does not mean we can't provide a service. ISPs should arrange for a BT Engineer to check out the systems and the wiring if a service doesn't work, if you didn't have such a visit your previous ISP has let you down. It is not unknown for a configuration error at the exchange to mean that the service wasn't put on your line, for example, in which case you were never going to get it to work.

Even if you had a BT engineer visit, if you were on a 512k fixed speed service there is still the possibility of a variable rate service working down to 256k or even a bit less. This isn't a fantastic speed but it frees you of dial-up charges and the modem hogging the line and will be at least 4 times faster download and 8 times faster at sending email than dial-up.

Your internal phone wiring may require attention to make the service reliable, to improve its speed or even to make it work. For a small charge we can come to you and sort this out, with extra charges for parts used when necessary. We also bring our own equipment and will try different types of modem or router on the line, as some work better than others in different situations. This also avoids any problems you may have had before with equipment supplied by the ISP or with configuration errors.

So we don't want to get your hopes up, but we will do our best to provide broadband on your line and make it work as reliably as we can. If we fail you're probably out of options, so give us a try !

Call 01572 898109.