No ADSL - are Wanadoo porkie providers

[Iceni]

In our huge hamlet of 8 or 9 houses I am known as the 'Internet woman' because I have ADSL. It is magic as when anyone else asks they get 2 months then another 2 months or the latest - get 100 signatures and we will do it. I have checked one number and lo and behold Alice has them down as being able to have ADSL with the free phone line etc etc. Our new neighbour was so amazed he went home 50 yards, got his credit card and came back and ordered it before it all disappeared again before his eyes. He runs a business and has been without an account since he moved in about a month ago, was told by Wanadoo his current provider that FT was not able to supply him with ADSL in any way shape or form and also stopped his account so he is not able to even dial in and get his mails from his ADSL account (something I can still do from my old Freeserve account which has not be used from the original phone number for 2+ years). It seems that everyone is totally Wanadoo biased. I am going to get the other couple in who need ADSL for various reasons in and get them to test their lines. The new box was only put in in October and to be honest you would have to go a long way to find 100 users in our neck of the wilderness.

The above is all depedant on the phone number. There is a little pocket of people near the Town (.5 km away) who are never going to get anything faster than dial-in even if they go up to reADSL as the line has to travel up to 12 KM to get to them. Having seen a colleague with a gizmo she attaches to her laptop (supplied by Wanadoo) and which works via ADSL or satellite but for a very reasonable monthly fee + time charges, things may move on and in a few years time we may say - do you remember when we had to rely on broadband, but until then, DO not rely on Wandoo but go onto Alice and get your number checked out - that is how we found out our connection had been installed and even though we have been using it for 6 months the rest still seem to be waiting for Wanadoo to put the same bit into the same box so they can get it - FT do the installation and own Wanadoo so someone needs to get their story straight.