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Ty Bro Ddyfi, 52 Heol Maengwyn, Machynlleth, Powys, SY20 8DT, UK. phone: 01654 703965 e-mail: info@ecodyfi.org.uk

Become a member of ecodyfi We want everybody in the Valley to join, so it only costs £1. Drop into Ty Bro Dyfi or send some stamps.

The information centre is open Monday to Friday between 10.00 and 3.00. You might even like to get involved in staffing it or in helping to run a project. Please come and see us!

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On the 1st September 2004 the Machynlleth exchange is due to be enabled for broadband!

This means that from the 1st September people within 5-6 km of the Machynlleth exchange should be able to receive Broadband Internet access.

On the 27th April 2004 BT scrapped the pre-registration system they had implemented and run for over two years.

In their press release they said that any exchange that had triggered by the 27th April or was within 90% of their trigger level would receive a date to be enabled for Broadband by the end of May.

(The Machynlleth exchange triggered on the 18th April, just in time.)

The good news is that they have kept their promise for Machynlleth.

The other exchanges in the Dyfi Valley either have a date already, or will have to wait until BT announces its work schedule in a couple of months.

They promise to upgrade 398 of the 433 exchanges in Wales.

The date of the 1st September 2004 is great news for Machynlleth. It's earlier than anticipated.

Other areas

Those outside the 5-6km range of an exchange who still want broadband have the option of choosing a satellite based system. This costs around £1000 to install and around £50 a month, so is only for the wealthy or for businesses who can justify the expense.

Finding a service provider

For the lucky ones, it's time to start thinking about picking a service provider and ordering the service. A list of service providers is to be found at www.adslguide.org.uk, together with some comparisons for speed, reliability, and customer service; or at www.wda.co.uk/broadband/.

If you run a business, the WDA is offering 50% of the cost of a 1Mb connection for the first year. See the same web site for details.

Over the past couple of months the cost of broadband has been falling sharply, so it pays to shop around.

>> Back to main broadband page