IT was good news indeed to learn that Tavistock has passed its Broadband trigger level and is to be ADSL-enabled in May. Unfortunately, this has no bearing on the surrounding villages.
Take Yelverton, where I live, as an example.
All telephone numbers beginning 01822 85 are served by the Yelverton exchange (actually a Remote Concentrator Unit) which is located near to the fire station. It is parented from Tavistock with which it shares the 01822 area code, but is a separate exchange in its own right.
ADSL is normally only available to those living within 3.5km of an ADSL-enabled local exchange, but this can be extended to 5.5km for rate adaptive variants of the products (source: OFTEL, see Ref.). However, a problem is presented by the geographical spread of subscribers in Yelverton and similar rural exchanges. It is understood that no trigger level has yet been set here because work to find a viable technical solution to this problem is ongoing.
All those of us outside Tavistock can do is to give as much encouragement as possible to BT by registering our interest in sufficiently large numbers. Then, villages like Yelverton may at least receive priority when that technical solution becomes available. At the time of writing, Yelverton has 215 such registrations.
If you live outside Tavistock itself and want Broadband but have yet to register, please help by doing so at the earliest opportunity. You can do this either through your own ISP or through http://www.plusnet.co.uk">www.plusnet.co.uk.
Dr Graham Goddard