Hundreds of Shrewsbury residents and businesses could lose out on a proposal to install faster internet speeds in the area because the initiative is flawed, it is claimed.
Telecommunications giant BT is running a campaign to assess how much support there is countrywide to roll out high speed, fibre-optic broadband.
The project, called the Race to Infinity, aims to identify ‘hotspot’ areas where demand is high.
Residents can vote for their town online with the places registering the most votes having their exchange upgraded first.
But claims have been made that many people in the Shrewsbury area cannot register a vote on the BT website because their internet connection is so bad.
The town’s MP Daniel Kawczynski has added his weight to the ‘wholly unfair’ situation by approaching BT’s head of public affairs, Tim O’Sullivan.
Yesterday 887 votes had been cast for the Shrewsbury exchange out of a possible 29,302 – just over three per cent of possible votes.
Thomas Hotchkiss, 76, of Bicton Heath, says that despite several calls to BT the situation is yet to be resolved and that many other people could have tried to register votes without success.
“The nearest exchange is six and a half miles away and the internet signal I get is absolutely atrocious,” he said.
“I tried to register my vote but I just couldn’t get it at all and that’s quite possibly why the numbers of votes are so low for the town. The whole thing is flawed.
“There must be so many people in the same situation and it seems like people in the area are not interested enough when it’s really because many people can’t even get on the website to vote.”
Mr Kawczynski said: “These reports are of real concern to me. It’s wholly unfair that constituents, who want to lodge their vote for better broadband services, are prevented from doing so.”
Emma Tennant, spokesperson for BT, said: “I’m really surprised that we’ve had comments such as this because we’ve had over 265,000 votes so far and it’s certainly not something I was aware of. I recommend that people experiencing this problem keep trying. Alternatively they can contact their service provider or get in touch with us.”
By David Seadon