A LARGE part of the borough of Warrington looks set to miss out on superfast broadband connections being rolled out across the UK by telecoms giant BT.
The whole of the town centre, important business areas like Birchwood and outlying areas like Culcheth, Glazebury, 
Croft, Padgate and Woolston seem likely to be at the back of the queue when BT introduces fibre optic cables enabling 40 meg broadband.
Only leafy areas like Lymm, Appleton, Stockton Heath and Grappenhall have so far been earmarked to get the upgrade in about two years’ time.
But part of the blame for that could be down to local people – not BT.
The company has launched a competition, The Race to Infinity, to decide who gets the faster broadband first.
To be included in the roll-out, a telephone exchange must have 1,000 subscribers voting for it.
Warrington, with a potential 34,310 subscribers, has so far received only 40 votes – 0.12 per cent.
Culcheth and Glazebury, with 4,784 subscribers, has received 23 votes – or 0.48 per cent.
Padgate – which includes the Birchwood area – has 18,593 subscribers but has received only 15 votes.
One businessman is urging local people to vote.
Paul Taylor, managing director of the Taylor Business Park at Culcheth, said: “We need the help of local people to put Culcheth on the map for high speed broadband.
“We need as many Culcheth and Glazebury-based companies and residents to vote to try and get fibre optics in Culcheth.”
But many people say they have never heard of BT’s “Race to Infinity.”
One company boss said: “How are we expected to vote if nobody tells us about it?”
In fact, the Race to Infinity initiative has been widely publicised.
To vote in it, Warrington internet users must go to the website www.racetoinfinity.bt.com and fill in their postcode and a number of other details.
They will then see how many votes their local exchange has received towards the target of 1,000 votes.
Picture: Warrington’s telephone exchange needs 1,000 votes
Town missing out on fast broadband
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About Author
Gary Skentelbery
Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.
12 Comments
I would advise local people to get clicking. We want Warrington – including the Culcheth and Padgate areas – to be among of the first areas to benefit from 40 meg broadband
Thanks Uncle Dave, I knew nothing about it and I’m a BT user. Padgate are now up to 18 votes and 0.10%. With only 40 votes in the whole of Warrington – BT certainly haven’t got their act together advertising campaign ip and running yest so well done Warrington Worldwide.
I am all in favour of this and I was going to vote but I object to supplying BT with so many details when you cast a vote, surely the telephone number is enough. Is it because they wish to send you junk mail about their services?
I think the info is required to prevent people from voting more than once. There is a box to tick if you don’t want junk mail.
I’ve now voted, I want fibre to be put in so Sky can then offer their 40MB service.
Currently only get 3MB as I’m a few miles away from the exchange.
Oh come on people. This is utter rubbish and little more than an attempt not only to get mailing information but also to get gullible people to promote their services free of charge.
Does anyone seriously believe that a company like BT doesn’t know where its potential customers are and where issues exist?
Errm. They already have our names and phone numbers. They’re BT.
Seriously though. If you want your house prices to go up then sign up. Being in the roll out will be a big boon to those trying to sell or rent property and to get the new media related business to the are that will be following the BBC to Salford.
They may well have my name and telephone number but they don’t necessarily have my private email address. Companies like this have access to data that tells them what colour socks you wear on a Wednesday so they really don’t need your details at all. This is simply a very clever form of advertising that encourages people to try and get one up on the neighbours by making it appear that you can better your chances the more you get to join in. I suspect the final outcome will owe more to cold economic factors rather than the results from any promotional game.
Any one who posts on a forum or a website and leaves their email address is in danger of being spammed – although that is not the case with WWW as we do not sell on our database information. But MOST holiday companies and tour operators do, along with many other organisations.
I have a relative who works for a database company and they sell your details for £110 per 1,000 on a daily basis – they have a database of nearly everyone in the UK and they know what paper your read, how much you spend on holidays, where you shop, your address, D.O.B. your phone number, including your mobile – and guess what even your email – so chill out and fill in the survey – you can tick the box not to be sent any info!
Think you need to chill out too Gary 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 Only 5 areas in the whole country can win so not much chance round here really but you never know eh. Have WBC advertised it on their web site? There is also a FREE supporters campaign pack on the web site for those who want to get more local people to vote. Anyone worried about getting spammed should just create a new email address and use that to vote instead ! PS I completely agree with Bill but you have to be “In It To Win It”. PS …. PENKETH is also already getting it but the news report didn’t include them. ……. I’ll be sticking to my superfast Virgin Media Cable Broadband though 🙂
G.W.H
I am all in favour of this.
accept my vote ,we need this the woolston/padgate areas of warrington.
RAWRR! INFINITY! Y U NO COME TO SANKEY!?