Slow Broadband in Cothi Valley

Internet speeds in some households and businesses in Cothi Valley, Carmarthenshire are as slow as 0.1Mbps.

19:12 11 December 2018

Some residents of Cothi Valley, Carmarthenshire are gravely unhappy with their poor internet connection which gives them as slow as 0.1Mbps. One of the residents, business owner Rhydian Thomas, has said that slow internet speeds mean he has to take a 10-minute drive just to send emails to his customers. He also said that "it takes an entire day to download a film" where he lives.

 

Openreach has previously confirmed that 95per cent of Wales now had access to fibre optic broadband. It added that since 2013, the number of Welsh homes with access to superfast broadband has increased from 370,000 to 720,000 following the completion of the Superfast Cymru scheme.

 

However, affected residents said that the rollout of the scheme was too slow and still left some communities lagging behind.

 

Mr Thomas, an electrical contractor, said "painfully slow" speeds caused him frequent problems.

 

"I need the internet to access emails for various jobs or update details on work that I have just done. But the speeds are so slow that it takes forever just to open a webpage," he said.

 

"It can dip out completely if it starts raining - and I've lost count of the amount of times I've had to drive into Carmarthen to use free wifi in a cafe just to send an email."

 

Responding to complaints, Openreach managing director Kim Sears said: "We've already done an incredible amount of work across Wales in improving access to better broadband connectivity - both in rural and urban parts of the country.

 

"Despite the challenges of planning, street works and permissions, our engineers are already reaching thousands of homes and businesses every week."