Brits shun country life over phone not-spot fears Millions of Britons unwilling to be parted from their urban broadband and not-too-shabby mobile phone reception are shunning rural living, according to a survey. Microwave dish Diary of a not-spot: Vulture hack vows, I will never pay BT again! READ MORE Just to really add insult to injury for the Great British Countryside …
Keeps the price of rural housing down for those of us that actually appreciate not being plugged in 24/7. Visiting the local is a much more engaging experience when you can talk with the other patrons, rather than everyone being fixated on their own right hand. Shock horror, people might have to go outside and actually do things.
On the other hand, when everyone in the pub is talking (shouting) to each other at once, it's really hard to have a quiet chat with your mate(s).
Not that I've noticed any difference between town pubs and country pubs in terms of mobile use personally. People stare at their phone when they're on their own and waiting for people to turn up, afterwards they chat to their friends.
People stare at their phone when they're on their own and waiting for people to turn up, afterwards they chat to their friends.
I very rarely see a lone mobile-gazer in my village local. If anyone goes in on their own, there is generally someone that they know in the pub already and they will talk to them...or if it's quiet the genial barkeep is good for both beer and conversation.
Canals are usually okay, it's in the tiny little valleys or clusters of stone cottages that a signal is hard to get.
No experience of canals, but living up in the hilly bit of north Northumberland, I find that coverage is generally good (home broadband is approx 85 meg down / 20 meg up) and the village gets 4G. The problem here tends to be mobile phone coverage indoors - all the buildings are really old, with 3 foot thick stone walls, which GSM signals tend not to penetrate particularly well.
An AC wrote:...living up in the hilly bit of north Northumberland, I find that coverage is generally good (home broadband is approx 85 meg down / 20 meg up) and the village gets 4G.
AIUI you have Northumberland County Council to thank for that. I believe that the CC provided money up front for BT to provide FTTC in a lot of places that probably struggled to get ADSL; quite small places (for some undefined value of "small") have good broadband, much of it benefitting the transient population occupying all the holiday lets in the area. (OK I admit it; Mrs Commswonk & I, along with Chien Commswonk are in that category; we love the area.)
As an aside I recall a snippet on You & Yours one day highlighting that something had gone horribly wrong with FTTC in Rothbury and that the speeds consumers were getting were utterly dreadful. I suspect that uptake of the service completely outstripped what had been planned for, meaning that additional fibres had to be run in from Alnwick, but I would be interested to know any further details if you have any.
Can't really comment on the phone coverage as my mobile only gets used for "emergencies".
The problem here tends to be mobile phone coverage indoors - all the buildings are really old, with 3 foot thick stone walls, which GSM signals tend not to penetrate particularly well.
As much as I find it annoying when I don't have a signal, I'm also often glad I have no signal. And at least you're forced to get some fresh air once in a while.
"@Voyna - surely Glen was taking the p*** out of the quote from the article?
I wonder how many of his downvoters actually read it?"
I wasn't a downvoter; I didn't disagree with him; I was merely making the point that absurdity has been the motive force of the British political system for the last ten years. (In what alternate reality could people like Johnson, Raab, McVey, Leadsom, Rees-Mogg, Fox, Gove &c be considered serious politicians?)
The problem with the word "ludicrous" is it suggests there's something amusing about it. There isn't.
Why is it ludicrous? All my life things like employment prospects, healthcare, education and transport have figured large in people's decisions on where to live and house prices and rents reflect this: somewhere close to a station/motorway costs more than somewhere a bit further away. For a while it was popular to live close to but outside a larger town but things likeand the move of jobs from "enterprise zones" back to cities and the the continuous increase in traffic have made this less attractive. Throw into this the problems of getting good teachers and medical staff to rural areas and the continuing decline of the farming population.
But, as the article says this seems largely PR for uSwitch.
now only if we were allowed to shoot those city/townies who visit the countryside only to fly tip their rubbish the world would be a better place.
Posting A/C as I really don't want more crap left at the end of my driveway (all 10m of it). One lot was left last month and the dumbass drove right by a sign saying hardcore wanted. He could have dropped it all for free and .... instead the council had to come and shift it all.
"fly tip their rubbish...One lot was left last month and the dumbass drove right by a sign saying hardcore wanted. He could have dropped it all for free and .... instead the council had to come and shift it all."
He DID drop it all off for free! And hey, you got a fresh batch of hardcore (if you like that kind of thing)! Win-Win!
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What are they calling the countryside? I mean I live in a small town so even from the centre it's only a 10 minute walk to woods and fields, but we get decent broadband and 4G. Would we fall under urban or rural?
But don't move here it's rubbish and you'll catch scurvy or something...
"My parent's hovel in darkest Somerset is finally on fiber"
My shack in darkest Somerset has had 150Mbps down and 20 up for years, no FTTC needed.
We try not to tell people as it's already hard for people to afford houses in our area, we don't want any more refugees from London, thanks.
Much like finding a politician who puts their representatives before personal ideology, can anyone name a telecommunications company which hasn't been ruined by a collective of paper-based simple beady-eyed types in the microwave zone.
There have been millions of fines promised and billions of investment to spend, alongside white-papers in the library, which haven't been read or checked out by anyone. They couldn't even spend the money.
What you also might notice if you could get a signal, is that the worst areas of urban degeneration and poverty haven't had a shred of interest. Potentially the fastest growing market of all. Ignore the opportunity, hoard the cash and fail to invest in technology and education, sounds like the institution as well. #knockknock
This city folks go out to the countryside and see a blacksmith, a farrier, a kid going door to door with a basket of eggs, and then sit down and enjoy a cream tea ... and have a meltdown when you tell them there's no Wi-Fi in the building because it doesn't go through solid stone walls.
What about fibre? No worries, we've got a 1200 baud modem ... it's the traditional communications speed, works well with the Bara brith you are enjoying sir.
What you want to do is upgrade that twenty eight point eight kilobaud internet connection to a one point five megabit fibre-optic T-1 line. The main question is will your ISP be able to provide an IP router that's compatable with your token ring ethernet LAN configuration?
The villiage i live in, the internet speed is reasonable at last (56mb down / 10 mb up).
However the mobile signal is horrendous and has been for over 2 decades. I am on O2 and get the best signal. It floats between 0 and 1 bars. Other networks struggle to get even that.
Vodafone do a device that piggy backs your broadband to provide a better mobile signal
They do but it only supports 3G and if your area has 4G coverage the phone will ignore the SureSignal unless you disable 4G on the phone. Also anything downloaded through it comes out of your mobile allowance. It also used to run disturbingly hot and has been known to burst into flames.
Luckily when 4G came to my area I no longer needed the SS. A single bar of 4G offers a perfectly acceptable service whereas the 3G signal in my area often left me unable to even send a text.
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It's OK now: I have in laws around that way. But 5 years ago I was asked to look at a family friend's computer using dialup, which connected at 21300 using a 56K modem. I suggested a USB 3G stick, which was rapidly returned once we found it connected at much the same speed!
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