I HAVE just read two letters concerning broadband internet connection in Redditch (Advertiser, July 17) and I agree with Mr Hornsey that we must try to get BT to upgrade our telephone exchanges for ADSL.

There is no viable alternative for many of us as the rival service from Telewest (Blueyonder) is not available throughout Redditch.

Blueyonder leafleted our house saying we were in an already cabled zone. We thought it a good service and contacted them.

Unfortunately, when they came to connect us it was found that part of our street had not been cabled. Telewest appeared surprised by this and after many phone calls, letters and e-mails, acknowledged that the decision not to cable our cul de sac was an operational one at the time by the contractors.

They eventually quoted us a price in excess of £3,000 to make the 70m connection to the service point.

Blueyonder sales director Mr Hobday does not mention this potential charge in his letter. BT does not make this excessive connection charge.

The rollout strategy for ADSL by BT does appear to be something of a lottery and I would love to hear publicly from BT why the 350 people in the Headless Cross area are required to commit themselves before they will enable that exchange but other exchanges have been enabled without any prior commitments.

Dr John Elgy

via e-mail