Broadband in Maryport is generally good, however, Broadband speed can vary depending on what area you live in - can be very flakey, inconsistent and unreliable - not great if you are trying to conduct business transactions etc.
At present I am a full time student living in Maryport, as this is the case it is important that I have constant access to fast, reliable broadband service. However I find internet access in the area to be generally sluggish and inconsistent. Compared to other area’s of the UK Maryport just can not compete, and as a student who relies on good internet access I am left feeling frustrated over the poor service avalible at present.
I’m sure that the broadband speed has got noticably worse over the last couple of years. It takes ages to download some items. It is now getting to the point where it is almost as slow as the old dial up connections of yesteryear. I have had the band width tested and apparently we are only getting about 1.8 Mb two miles from Maryport! Different providers have told me that this is due to the line quality. The problem needs to be addressed and quickly.
Thank-you. Please forward this link to everyone you know in and around Maryport (Allonby, Dearham etc) and encourage them to leave comments. The greater the ‘critical mass’, the more powerful an argument we can present. http://maryport.broadbandcumbria.com
2 miles of telephone line should give you about 4M download, but sometimes you can be 2 miles away from the exchange in a straight line and have 3.5 miles of line. Your home wiring and phone type appliances can have an influence too.
It’s helpful if people state what ISP and package they’re on, as well as approx location. Maryport has three wholesale providers and there are hundreds of retail packages so some extra information is helpful. You may have selected a low cost ISP / package that consequently gives you lower throughput at peak times, for example.
Otherwise the comments are a bit apocryphal and we just end up with “somebody should do something about it” as a conclusion
Maryport has no problem generally with broadband, it has its own exchange in the middle of the area, the radius of the town is such that pretty much everyone should be getting 6 to 8mb. Bt could upgrade their equipment and this will shoot up to 15mb+.
It is a bit of a myth by people with a grudge. If you live in Maryport and you have bad broadband, its because:
i) Their is a fault on your line
ii) Your internal wiring is poor
iii) Your ISP has crappy capacity.
Everyone else should be fine. If Cumbria County Council spend a penny in Maryport it would show complete and utter madness.
Many thanks for your useful comments. What Broadband users in Maryport ‘should’ receive but what they actually receive is an issue certainly worthwhile investigating - indeed, this could be the purpose and driver for the people of Maryport to either engage or disengage with this process. As you helpfully suggest, if BT upgrade their equipment, this might well improve services - again, part of the Cumbria County Council’s dialogue with infrastructure suppliers and serving local communities. Lexical use of ‘myth’ (implying ignorance) and ‘grudge’ (parochialism) is not helpful in this incidence - this microsite was established to make people aware of the issues involved and gather opinions and views which can be fed further up the chain. Be assured, there is a general perception that Cumbria County Council does not spend a single penny halfpenny on Maryport that it doesn’t have to, why should inclusion in this ‘initiative’ be any different?
I was in Maryport yesterday, perfectly fine line. Did a speed test, was rated at 8mb in the router, the line pulled in about 6mb. Perfectly fine, fast broadband and that was with BT. I repeat, if you have a problem, it is due to a line fault, bad internal wiring or a poor ISP.
There wont be a single premises in Maryport that cant receive good solid fast broadband.
Thanks for your interesting, if somewhat repetitive, comments. I am a resident of Maryport, not an occasional visitor or ‘second-homer’, and my average broadband reception tops 5.9 mb, not the 6-8mb which I have contracted for, an experience shared by many other residents as exampled here. A simple analogy of this situation would be that of ordering and paying for a pint of beer and receiving a glass which is only three quarters full, the excuse being that the barrel is almost empty and that the pipes are faulty. Is this acceptable? Perhaps I am mistaken, but I am detecting an element of what internet anthropologists describe as ‘flaming’ – cyber-bullying – and a ‘that’s good enough for that lot’ attitude. It might be worth noting that there are a number of new housing developments in the planning stages both in Maryport and surrounding areas, all of whom will be contributing considerably to local tax revenues and all of whom will require improved and superfast broadband services. With new housing and increased population, hopefully come new businesses. This raises uncomfortable questions. Should a proportion of the £17m be used for the greater good and the highest number of households and businesses benefiting and contributing to the Cumbrian economy? Or, should all of the money be used to supply a limited number of remote barn-conversions operating low-yield cottage industries? The key word here is ‘improving’. Thanks to the positive input by other contributors, it is clear that it is indeed possible to have over-head fibre and FTTH to West Cumbrian homes. Armed with this information, we can now, with help from Cumbria County Council and their partners, lobby suppliers in an attempt to supply this facility.
the simple analogy is too simplistic, unfortunately. You aren’t buying a commodity by volume or weight, you’re buying a service with defined characteristics.
You have probably contracted for a variable rate ADSL service that has a link speed of up to 8128k as measured at the ATM level - which means a speed test result of maximum 6800 kbits/s - and you’re getting it.
The minimum acceptable service speed is IIRC 600 kbits/s. speedtester.bt.com would confirm
The costs of provision are primarily driven by the number of GBytes you download, which although influenced by your link speed are not determined by it. A heavy user on less than 1M can use way more capacity than a light user on 6M for example.
There is as you say much scope for better services and long term improvement.
I’m not convinced there’s a whole lot to be gained by looking at the minutiae of current services other than in trying to help people get the best out of them in the short term.
If you get 5.9M you’re in line with the rest of the non-cable TV UK’s typical experience so that in itself doesn’t present a strong argument for improvement and does leave your arguments open to pedantic scrutiny, best to focus on future potential and what can be done with it.
Faster than 8M services are available on the Maryport exchange.
Cheers Phil - you are obviously highly knowledgable in this area and I respectfully defer to your experience. Can I ask, are you a member of the official team involved with this initiative? If so, what would you advise? Rather than ‘muddying the waters’ with blog contributions for Maryport - should I inform Maryport Town Council that we should withdraw from the process, tell the Broadband Champions to ‘stand down’ and delete this site? I will try to contact someone from CALC and CCC for guidance.
no cause to withdraw, there is much to be argued for in terms of the benefits of getting faster than 20M services ie “superfast” as defined by BDUK.
It’s worth pointing out that this will be at least double the typical currently available speed, and that the upload speed of 2 - 10Mbits/s is at least as important for people or businesses generating content or sending back stuff they receive.
It isn’t, IMHO, worth getting into nit-picking exercises about current performances. Future products may also fall short of expectations but that’s no reason not to raise the game a level.
Yes Phil, ‘raising the game a level’ is what I believe CCC is striving for. To reiterate, as a local councillor and Broadband Champion for Maryport, my role is to ensure that Maryport is included in this ‘game’ and not relegated to the sub-bench! Cumbria contributes more to the UK than is recognised (Energy Coast guff etc) but doesn’t have a modern infrastructure to support it. We want the best services available - it is no more complicated than that.
fixed rate ADSL and Cable services also have to be described as “up to” to reflect contention and the fact that the internet may not deliver your line speed’s capacity.
Fibre optic services will also be up to, as the bottleneck is moved elsewhere but there’s always a bottleneck.
GREAT REVIEW! I pretty much agree with all you said in your article, especially at the end of your article. Thank you, this info is very valuable as always. Keep up the good work! You’ve got +1 more reader of your super blog:) Isabella S.
Maryport has a choice of wholesale provider so you can get more than 8M if you’re close enough to the exchange via Sky or TalkTalk.
Lower prices from the likes of Plusnet as it’s a “Market 3″ exchange with competition.
Broadband in Maryport is generally good, however, Broadband speed can vary depending on what area you live in - can be very flakey, inconsistent and unreliable - not great if you are trying to conduct business transactions etc.
Using the internet daily has become a chore as the services are constantly disconnecting and closing down.
I have lost numerous articles and information and am unimpressed with the broadband services in Maryport.
If Broadband companies are claiming to give excellent access throughout the UK – they should live up to it.
At present I am a full time student living in Maryport, as this is the case it is important that I have constant access to fast, reliable broadband service. However I find internet access in the area to be generally sluggish and inconsistent. Compared to other area’s of the UK Maryport just can not compete, and as a student who relies on good internet access I am left feeling frustrated over the poor service avalible at present.
I’m sure that the broadband speed has got noticably worse over the last couple of years. It takes ages to download some items. It is now getting to the point where it is almost as slow as the old dial up connections of yesteryear. I have had the band width tested and apparently we are only getting about 1.8 Mb two miles from Maryport! Different providers have told me that this is due to the line quality. The problem needs to be addressed and quickly.
Thank-you. Please forward this link to everyone you know in and around Maryport (Allonby, Dearham etc) and encourage them to leave comments. The greater the ‘critical mass’, the more powerful an argument we can present. http://maryport.broadbandcumbria.com
2 miles of telephone line should give you about 4M download, but sometimes you can be 2 miles away from the exchange in a straight line and have 3.5 miles of line. Your home wiring and phone type appliances can have an influence too.
It’s helpful if people state what ISP and package they’re on, as well as approx location. Maryport has three wholesale providers and there are hundreds of retail packages so some extra information is helpful. You may have selected a low cost ISP / package that consequently gives you lower throughput at peak times, for example.
Otherwise the comments are a bit apocryphal and we just end up with “somebody should do something about it” as a conclusion
i love your blog, i have it in my rss reader and always like new things coming up from it.
Hi, yes the discussions are proving very informative and thanks to everyone who are generously sharing their knowledge with us, much appreciated.
Maryport has no problem generally with broadband, it has its own exchange in the middle of the area, the radius of the town is such that pretty much everyone should be getting 6 to 8mb. Bt could upgrade their equipment and this will shoot up to 15mb+.
It is a bit of a myth by people with a grudge. If you live in Maryport and you have bad broadband, its because:
i) Their is a fault on your line
ii) Your internal wiring is poor
iii) Your ISP has crappy capacity.
Everyone else should be fine. If Cumbria County Council spend a penny in Maryport it would show complete and utter madness.
Many thanks for your useful comments. What Broadband users in Maryport ‘should’ receive but what they actually receive is an issue certainly worthwhile investigating - indeed, this could be the purpose and driver for the people of Maryport to either engage or disengage with this process. As you helpfully suggest, if BT upgrade their equipment, this might well improve services - again, part of the Cumbria County Council’s dialogue with infrastructure suppliers and serving local communities. Lexical use of ‘myth’ (implying ignorance) and ‘grudge’ (parochialism) is not helpful in this incidence - this microsite was established to make people aware of the issues involved and gather opinions and views which can be fed further up the chain. Be assured, there is a general perception that Cumbria County Council does not spend a single penny halfpenny on Maryport that it doesn’t have to, why should inclusion in this ‘initiative’ be any different?
I was in Maryport yesterday, perfectly fine line. Did a speed test, was rated at 8mb in the router, the line pulled in about 6mb. Perfectly fine, fast broadband and that was with BT. I repeat, if you have a problem, it is due to a line fault, bad internal wiring or a poor ISP.
There wont be a single premises in Maryport that cant receive good solid fast broadband.
Thanks for your interesting, if somewhat repetitive, comments. I am a resident of Maryport, not an occasional visitor or ‘second-homer’, and my average broadband reception tops 5.9 mb, not the 6-8mb which I have contracted for, an experience shared by many other residents as exampled here. A simple analogy of this situation would be that of ordering and paying for a pint of beer and receiving a glass which is only three quarters full, the excuse being that the barrel is almost empty and that the pipes are faulty. Is this acceptable? Perhaps I am mistaken, but I am detecting an element of what internet anthropologists describe as ‘flaming’ – cyber-bullying – and a ‘that’s good enough for that lot’ attitude. It might be worth noting that there are a number of new housing developments in the planning stages both in Maryport and surrounding areas, all of whom will be contributing considerably to local tax revenues and all of whom will require improved and superfast broadband services. With new housing and increased population, hopefully come new businesses. This raises uncomfortable questions. Should a proportion of the £17m be used for the greater good and the highest number of households and businesses benefiting and contributing to the Cumbrian economy? Or, should all of the money be used to supply a limited number of remote barn-conversions operating low-yield cottage industries? The key word here is ‘improving’. Thanks to the positive input by other contributors, it is clear that it is indeed possible to have over-head fibre and FTTH to West Cumbrian homes. Armed with this information, we can now, with help from Cumbria County Council and their partners, lobby suppliers in an attempt to supply this facility.
the simple analogy is too simplistic, unfortunately. You aren’t buying a commodity by volume or weight, you’re buying a service with defined characteristics.
You have probably contracted for a variable rate ADSL service that has a link speed of up to 8128k as measured at the ATM level - which means a speed test result of maximum 6800 kbits/s - and you’re getting it.
The minimum acceptable service speed is IIRC 600 kbits/s. speedtester.bt.com would confirm
The costs of provision are primarily driven by the number of GBytes you download, which although influenced by your link speed are not determined by it. A heavy user on less than 1M can use way more capacity than a light user on 6M for example.
There is as you say much scope for better services and long term improvement.
I’m not convinced there’s a whole lot to be gained by looking at the minutiae of current services other than in trying to help people get the best out of them in the short term.
If you get 5.9M you’re in line with the rest of the non-cable TV UK’s typical experience so that in itself doesn’t present a strong argument for improvement and does leave your arguments open to pedantic scrutiny, best to focus on future potential and what can be done with it.
Faster than 8M services are available on the Maryport exchange.
Cheers Phil - you are obviously highly knowledgable in this area and I respectfully defer to your experience. Can I ask, are you a member of the official team involved with this initiative? If so, what would you advise? Rather than ‘muddying the waters’ with blog contributions for Maryport - should I inform Maryport Town Council that we should withdraw from the process, tell the Broadband Champions to ‘stand down’ and delete this site? I will try to contact someone from CALC and CCC for guidance.
no cause to withdraw, there is much to be argued for in terms of the benefits of getting faster than 20M services ie “superfast” as defined by BDUK.
It’s worth pointing out that this will be at least double the typical currently available speed, and that the upload speed of 2 - 10Mbits/s is at least as important for people or businesses generating content or sending back stuff they receive.
It isn’t, IMHO, worth getting into nit-picking exercises about current performances. Future products may also fall short of expectations but that’s no reason not to raise the game a level.
I’m nothing official.
Yes Phil, ‘raising the game a level’ is what I believe CCC is striving for. To reiterate, as a local councillor and Broadband Champion for Maryport, my role is to ensure that Maryport is included in this ‘game’ and not relegated to the sub-bench! Cumbria contributes more to the UK than is recognised (Energy Coast guff etc) but doesn’t have a modern infrastructure to support it. We want the best services available - it is no more complicated than that.
Diana - how can you lose articles due to broadband?
Again - sort out the home wiring and buy a new PC.
You’re so cool man, the post on your blogs are super good.
Andy - due to the technology the contract for ADSL is ‘up to’, not specific speeds.
And thereby hangs the tail!
fixed rate ADSL and Cable services also have to be described as “up to” to reflect contention and the fact that the internet may not deliver your line speed’s capacity.
Fibre optic services will also be up to, as the bottleneck is moved elsewhere but there’s always a bottleneck.
GREAT REVIEW! I pretty much agree with all you said in your article, especially at the end of your article. Thank you, this info is very valuable as always. Keep up the good work! You’ve got +1 more reader of your super blog:) Isabella S.
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Your webpage won’t display appropriately on my android - you might want to try and repair that
As Phil Thompson suggests, you might ask your provider to repair their browser.
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Nancy.R
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