This site is administered by both the Affetside Millennium Green Trust and the Affetside Society All areas of the UK, no matter whether rural, semi rural or town/city should have the  same rates of broadband access and should be able to access the same commerical  low-cost telephone and broadband packages (which requires their telephone exchange to be "de-bundled" or enabled in a special way). Any government scheme to roll out faster broadband must give and require wholly  equal treatment and timing to all areas of the UK. Why is it important? This is simply fairness. We all pay the same basic phone rental for our Internet, we all pay the same commercial prices for the packages available. Only some people can get it cheaper than others, and others can get far better speeds whilst paying the same as others that cannot, and no-one seems to care about this inequality. No person in the UK should be at a disadvantage in this day and age, certainly with  what are essential day to day information, communication, transactional and  educational tools. No person should have faster or slower access for the same  payment, and no person should be required to pay more for their telephone and/or  Internet services (usually also at the same time receiving a much inferior and slower service). Successive Governments have stressed the need for fast broadband and related  facilities, yet this clearly only applies where the commerical providers can be bothered to install the appropriate equipment.  If it really matters, then let's see it everywhere. A number of residents have been hassling their own Internet Service Providers about the level of service and speed that is received in Affetside. It would appear that the  speeds achieved vary between 0.7Mbps and 2.7Mbps. This speed, on a worldwide  ranking, is classed as very poor. If you test your speed HERE you can log it against your postcode and it gives an  indication of how poor the speed is that we get, and also allows you to see the speeds received in nearby districts. We are shortly to have a meeting with BT’s Regional Director about our poor  infrastructure. However, we feel that BT will only do something if there is sufficient  demand in the village to justify upgrading our cabling. As a community we can do this by registering our interest in BT’s Infinity programme. NOTE: This is purely a  registration of interest, and there is no obligation. If we can get everybody in the  village who uses broadband to register their interest, we may get some action from BT. BT Infinity Registration Why should Hawkshaw get 37Mbps broadband and not us?