Crusade for upgrade (From Penarth Times)

Crusade for upgrade

A PENARTH businessman is appealing for his peers to join him in a virtual crusade. Engineer Richard Dagwell, 32, of Anchor Road, is fed up with waiting hours to download important documents, tying up his phone line and running up his bill.

But unless he gets help from around 400 other people in Penarth, he can't do a thing about it. He said: "At the moment, businesses in Penarth have to use regular speed modems to connect to the internet. It's fine for domestic use, but when you're talking about large files or graphics, it's a nightmare.

"What we need is broadband internet access. It will make the process faster and the connection to your telephone remains clear so you can make and receive phone calls as you send and receive e-mails.

"The problem is that British Telecom cannot up-grade the Penarth exchange unless there is a big enough call for it."

Richard thinks it would benefit a lot of small businesses in Penarth . He said: "I could spend more time working from home if I had broadband. It cuts down on so much time and money, which are as equally important to small ventures just getting off the ground as they are to multi-national firms."

Logging on to the BT website, there is a non-obligation register for surfers to sign and show an interest in broadband internet connection.

Richard urged: "I think about 50 people have shown an interest. You type in your telephone number and it comes up with what exchange you use. You don't have to sign anything or even agree to have broadband. All you need to do is show that you are keen to know more about having it in your area."

If you are interested, log on to www.bt.com and click on the broadband availability checker. Follow the instructions to register your interest.