SUPERFAST broadband in Weymouth due to go live this summer will not be coming until December 2013.
In September last year BT announced that fibre-optic broadband would be available in both Portland and Weymouth by the start of the Olympic Games as a legacy of the sailing events.
The service went live on Portland in February but the company has now announced that it will not be coming to Weymouth until next year.
A BT spokesman said the work in the town is not expected to start until after the summer and will take more than a year to complete.
On the company’s website it states that the faster Infinity broadband is not scheduled to go live in Weymouth until December 2013.
The spokesman said: “There is an embargo on construction work of this type in Weymouth until after the Olympics.
“We expect to start as soon as the Olympics are over, but the considerable amount of work involved laying new fibre cabling and installing street cabinets in the town means that the new services cannot now be available until 2013.
“We will provide a further update as the work progresses.”
Mike Weaver, who is Openreach built project manager for fibre to the cabinet, said that Weymouth’s roll-out would take place after the Games due to the disruption required for cabinets to be installed.
Rob Russell, of Weymouth, said he recently renewed his contract with BT based on the fact that their Infinity availability map had listed Wey-mouth as being ‘enabled’ from June 30.
He said: “I am not a business user, just an ordinary customer.
“When I checked the map again on June 30 Weymouth had moved to December 2013.
“My brother who lives on Portland informed me that BT had just doubled his Infinity speed from 20mb to 40mb.
“Those of us living in Weymouth get 2 to 4mb if we are lucky.
“When the wires must pass through Weymouth to get to Portland and Weymouth is the major population centre I cannot understand how BT can do this.
“So much for Olympic legacy, this will put Weymouth a year behind the rest of Dorset.”
In February, BT pledged that its new super-fast network will pass another 100,000 premises across the county by the end of this year.
The other locations, including Bournemouth, Poole, Dorchester, Ferndown, Blandford and Verwood, are all still on target.
A Dorset County Council spokesman said there is an embargo on any construction work on the Olympic network until September 14.
She said: “We are encouraging utility companies not to do any planned work in Weymouth.”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel