Tracey Adamson, of Lochanlea, and her neighbours at Middlebie Rigg and Whitehill Cottage, say the lack of fibre and the ‘unusable internet’ in their postcode area are making working from home and running businesses very difficult, as well as general family life.
And they are even more frustrated that everyone else on their line, which comes from Ecclefechan, has fibre, as well as in nearby Middlebie.
Their three homes are the last on the line but before it gets to them it’s lying in a field bottom and tacked to a fence.
Despite flagging up the situation, nothing has been done to move the line and they have been told that Openreach has no further plans to upgrade it to include them or offer them fibre.
Tracey says they can’t understand why, adding: “Openreach have partially installed fibre but refuse to complete the line, yet they have marked it as complete as far as the Scottish Government R100 rollout is concerned.
“Everybody round here has got problems, there’s just no decent internet. My neighbours are trying to run businesses using mobile internet etc, which is frustrating given that the fibre cable is so close.
“We are getting very frustrated and feel we are just being forgotten about.”
She revealed she has been in dialogue with Openreach for several years and was told by an engineer that the speed is 5 mbps when it leaves Ecclefechan, dropping to 1 mbps by the time it gets to Tracey – but that’s only on a good day when it’s not crashing or buffering.
And she added: “Within a mile there’s properties with superfast broadband but up here we’re all having to use dongles, data sticks and our phones.
“But the fibre is very nearly here. It’s so annoying.”
Neighbour Leeann Kennedy agreed and said: “We have virtually nothing. We have struggled for years with poor connection.
“It would make it so much easier if we had the upgrade everyone else seems to have. It makes life hard running a business from home.”
An Openreach spokesperson yesterday said the company was investigating the situation.
