£150,000 for broadband? You’re having a laugh!
Everyone is on the internet today. Ten to fifteen years ago it may have been a rare luxury to have the internet, but today everyone uses the net, be it on the computer, mobile phone or on another gadget like an iPod Touch. People are taking advantage of cheap internet with speedy browsing and higher download limits. One woman in particular is Beverley McCartney, 71, who wanted to connect to the internet in her village in Carmarthenshire.
However she was in a shock after receiving the bill to set her up with internet. BT charged her £129,613.54 plus VAT, which would make it in excess of £150,000 to get her up and running. BT also offered to pay a measly 6% of the cost themselves, which would be around £8,000 but is still negligable to the full cost.
Initally Mrs. McCartney though that BT had made an error when calculating the amount and called BT up to clarify. But she said on talking to BT,”I phoned BT and said surely this is a typing error and the girl said ’No, there’s been no mistake, other people have had bills for much more than this’.”
A spokesperson for BT, Chris Orum said “If it’s just one individual person and it requires upgrading the network for one person, no company would cover that. There can be very rare cases where additional charges need to be applied because of an exceptional amount of work required to the network in order to provide service.”
A fuming Mrs. McCartney said, on her village, Salem, “It’s outrageous,” she fumed. “I’m not on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere - it’s rural but not a wilderness.”
Unfortunately, despite the 6% decrease, Mrs. McCartney will not be getting broadband saying “I couldn’t afford £2,000, let alone £150,000. "And let’s be honest, if you had that much money to spend I’m sure a nice trip to chalets val d isere would be higher on your list than fast internet!