Broadband? Certainly... If You've Got £150K

BT has quoted 71-year-old Beverly McCartney £150,000 to install a broadband connection to her home.

The BBC reports that BT, which is now bringing fast Internet connections under the Regional Innovative Broadband Support Scheme (RIBS) to customers who had previously been unable to get them, had previously refused to supply broadband to her because of her rural location.

The company contacted her last week to tell her that under RIBS they can provide her with broadband connection - so long as she pays £142,000 of its £150,000 installation cost. BT said it would pay the extra £8,000.

The pensioner is shocked and hugely disappointed with the system, saying: "I couldn't afford £2,000, let alone £150,000."

Beverly McCartney lives in Salem, near Llandeilo, Camarthenshire, which is, as she puts it: "not on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere - it's rural but not a wilderness."

The Welsh assembly had started the RIBS scheme with BT in the hope of providing a broadband service to as many rural Welsh residents as possible.