BROKEN PROMISES OVER the installation of Superfast Broadband services to a Moray village has left one customer describing BT’s flagship systems as “shocking”.
Garmouth residents are no strangers to poor telephone services, with their community living in an infamous ‘not-spot’ for mobile telephone reception.
Hopes were raised in the community when BT said that they were set to join the new Superfast network being rolled out through Moray and the Highlands – however, so far it has been little more than disappointment and no signs of anything changing in the near future.
Speaking to comparison website cable.co.uk, Carol El Hawary said that repeated requests to BT for information have so far produced only non-committal responses on if or when upgrading will arrive.
The 50-year-old, who lives with parents Jean and Gordon Rae in the village, said: “My dad has called BT about it – he called to upgrade to the unlimited package and took the opportunity to ask them about superfast. They were non-committal.
“It is very important for them, they are very reliant on it because they have a landline but that’s about it – there is no mobile signal around here. Vodafone is the only mobile network you’ve got a chance of getting, and that’s really poor.
“They have Vodafone Sure Signal but that relies on the internet, so when that drops out there is no mobile signal either. It drops out several times a day – it’s shocking.”
Skype conversations are nigh-on impossible for Mrs El Hawary to hold a conversation with her husband who lives in Egypt – and when she herself returns to her home in Cairo next month she fears that keeping in touch with her parents will be nigh-on impossible.
“I wouldn’t mind so much if they could tell us what is wrong – we don’t know what the problem is,” Mrs El Hawary said, adding: “They sent an engineer a while ago and they just said it was too much traffic. The whole village suffers from it – as far as I know it is anyone on the Spey Bay exchange.”