Tuesday… another little anniversary
Apr 14th 2009PeterTech stuff
Not momentous, but it is five years ago today that broadband came to my village after 6 months of campaigning!
For those that don’t remember, prior to 2003. broadband was limited to large centres of population, and those of us that lived in the sticks only had dial up internet access either through a normal line or ISDN.
The criteria was demand – the more people that asked at BB, the better the chances of getting it, so people started drumming up support to get interest registered in the hope that their exchange would be enabled. A smart team at BT capitalised on those efforts with support, a forum and promotional material, and working with BT, the campaigns eventually changed the BT policy so that all exchanges were enabled – and mine was one of the first under the new policy.
One of the highlights of the campaign was being invited to the BT Tower in London for a reception, the pictures show the view from the top, and me with the then head of broadband marketing. A good evening!
It is hard to realise at a time when as I have nearly 8Mb/s at home, and I am writing this connected through a high speed mobile network that then 512Mb/s was considered fast. We have come a long way, and I am quite proud to have been a small part of it!
Onwards and upwards! (in speed among other things!)