BT drops rural broadband cost from £500,000 to £100

Residents of a small village in rural Wales will be able to access broadband internet for the first time after BT switched the exchange to which the houses are connected.

Erbistock, near Wrexham, had been a not-spot owing to its distance from the exchange, but residents will now be able to receive speeds of between 1Mbit/s and 4Mbit/s.

Properties in the village (Google Maps) were connected to an exchange in Bangor-on-Dee but BT used its Openreach programme to change this to Overton-on-Dee.

BT said that residents can now request broadband services from a supplier by transferring their connection to the new exchange, but that this would involve a new phone line and number at a cost of around £100.

However, as BT pointed out, residents could claim back this cost from broadband support schemes aimed at helping rural not-spot residents to get online.

A BT spokesperson explained that the 're-parenting' system could be an option for getting other areas online, but that it is usually expensive.

"The re-parenting solution (whereby customer lines are migrated to another exchange) was possible in Erbistock because there was already a redundant cable in place. This was discovered during business as usual activity in the area," the spokesperson said.

"As network assets were already in place it allowed us to provide a broadband solution in a cost-effective manner. We do consider re-parenting a potential solution to address broadband not-spots, but in most cases it proves to be cost-prohibitive."

BT could not confirm the total cost of the switchover, but said that by using the existing redundant network assets costs were "minimal".

Erbistock has already been in the headlines after BT gave the village an initial quote of £500,000 for broadband access.