We all support the moves to bring broadband to rural areas but a decent Internet connection should be available to all, not just those who can afford ASDL or ISDN.

Almost from the outset this website has been receiving complaints about Internet Connections. It started with people from Tobermory telling me that there Internet speed had dropped since the new computers had started arriving but it became obvious that the problem was widespread.

This led me to start collecting them and you can see the results of this on the Connections Map (send yours in by filling in the form at the bottom of the page). It soon became clear that the root cause was the inadequacy of the local telephone network and in particular BTs policy of splitting telephone lines between homes rather than installing new lines. BT's standard response to complaints is to recommend people upgrade to a considerably more expensive ISDN line.

Something had to be done to make "the powers that be" aware of the situation and so petitions were organised on Colonsay, Lismore, Luing, Aros (part of Mull), Easdale and Seil. These have now been completed and will be sent to the Digital Inclusion Unit, which oversees the NAIDC project, along with a report on the various problems this week.

Now it is time for people to contact MPs, MSPs, Oftel and BT directly by letter and email. This will keep the issue on the political agenda, indeed Oftel run a top ten of complaints and we should aim to get this issue into that chart.

You will find a list contacts on the left ("Contacts"), write to any or all of them and send me a copy of the letter or email. Whether or not you are personally affected by the Internet speed issue (I'm not) I know you will wish all in the digital community to have a decent service, the more fuss we make the more likely it is our voices will be heard, so get writing!

Send in your connection speed!

You can find out how fast your connection is by putting your cursor over the two little monitors that sit in your system tray next to the clock when you are on line. Do it, without clicking, and a number will come up, something like "20008456 bytes received 459043 sent @ 39000 bps". The speed is the bit after the @ sign, the other numbers are the amounts of info sent and received (bet you didn't realise how much you sent!). Or you can double click on the monitor icon and read the "connecting at" figure.

I promise that no information collected in this appeal will processed in any way and you won't be sent spam emails even by this website. All that will be kept is the connection speed and the postcode. 

Fill in the form below with your postcode (I don't post the entire postcode but need it to work out where you live) and your modem speed. If you have exprienced a speed drop since the advent of the digital community please post that too and any other information that might be helpful. If you are a forum member you can post in the forum thread. TIA (as they say)