Frustrated broadband users in Bradley Stoke have been given new hope of an improvement in connection speeds after BT launched a scheme whereby residents can vote for their neighbourhood to be fast-tracked for the installation of superfast broadband.
The Race to Infinity Scheme invites residents to vote online for their area to become one of the first to enjoy fibre optic broadband.
The five areas which have the largest percentage of votes by 31st December 2010 will win the chance to bring fibre optic broadband to their area and BT will give a donation of computer equipment worth £5,000 to a local community project.
Votes can be cast on BT’s dedicated Race to Infinity website.
To register your vote, enter your postcode and click Go! The name of the exchange is then displayed, along with the current number of votes registered.
Now click Vote Now!, which leads to another dialog in which you must enter your landline number, post code (again) and whether you are a residential or business customer.
The final dialog then asks for your name, email address and house number before you are able to submit your vote.
By midnight on Monday, the first day of voting, the Almondsbury exchange (01454 numbers) had received 34 out of a possible 9,480 votes, with the Filton exchange (0117 numbers) on 18 out of 18,731.
The Bradley Stoke Journal is promoting the Race to Infinity vote as part of our Better Broadband Campaign. We have asked the Town Council to work with us and will be approaching local businesses for support. Stay tuned for further details!
Test your broadband speed now using the custom meter on our Bradley Stoke Broadband page.
Great stuff – hope we can win this fight. It’s about time someone listened to the continued problems with broadband here.
Can you also ask Almondsbury parish council to promote this as well. We have the same exchange after all!
Simon – yes, we’ll definitely be looking to publicise the campaign in other communities covered by the two exchanges (Filton and Almondsbury). This will be essential if we are to stand any chance of success.
Voted. This is it’s to win a “chance” of an upgrade. It’s basically a big marketing sceme by BT to see where the most customers are who want it.
Ah well, we’ll see how it goes, but even still it won’t be rolled out for a couple of years yet.
Just voted, I was No 60, I think we will need alot more than that!
“Jack Lopresti has vowed to make the fight to secure faster, more reliable, broadband coverage across his constituency one of his top priorities.”
Come on Jack, now is your chance to make good on your promise!!!!
Make this happen for the 25,000 Bradley Stoke residents that have suffered for so long!
How ironic that the voting site is a graphics intensive page which probably only works well if you’ve got fast broadband. Voting for me here in Dewfalls Drive with a 0.2mbps connection has just taken me 10 minutes.
I was number 98.
Almondsbury’s doing well – 106 votes have been cast out of a possible total of 9,480.
Not so good over at Filton, where 39 votes have been cast out of a possible total of 18,731.
Why not use your social media channels to promote The Journal’s Better Broadband for Filton, Almondsbury and Filton Campaign?
Head over to The Journal’s Facebook page and ‘like’ this story or simply post the story on your Facebook wall.
There’s now a dedicated Facebook Group for the Better Broadband for Filton, Almondsbury & Bradley Stoke (BB4FABS) campaign.
We’re looking for a few volunteers to act as admins for the group. Contact us if you’re willing to help.