HAVE you ever tried to actually speak to someone in BT or Openreach? It is pretty much impossible, unless the business want to sell you something; then it’s easy. Strange that!

It is the most uncommunicative company on the planet. Take a look at its websites and try to track down a telephone number to make a complaint. You will not find one. Again, it’s an important part of its culture.

The reason for my annoyance with BT and Openreach (why do they pretend to be separate businesses?) is that they recently announced with a lot of hullabaloo and posters that the village of Simonburn, in the North Tyne Valley, was at last getting superfast broadband.

On the face of it, really good news for the small businesses, farmers and local residents who needed to communicate with the outside world.

I made a call. I was sold all kinds of unwanted stuff – BT Sport, movies, call minder, cheap calls – until I eventually ordered what I had wanted for years, superfast broadband. The company checked my line, measured the distance from the box and told me I could have 35mbs. Later it guaranteed 31mbs in writing.

After a number of missed appointments, an engineer eventually turned up. He looked perplexed, and was gobsmacked when we heard we had been guaranteed 31mbs. He could only get 2.5mbs on a good day. He said we should be pleased; most places he had been to that day couldn’t get any!

After numerous and wasted calls to BT, I eventually spoke to a real person in India, and after another series of wasted engineer visits it was grudgingly confirmed that 2.5mbs was the maximum.

BT and Openreach are an incompetent bunch. I have tried to complain, but it is very, very difficult. You are directed to websites where the process of making a complaint is so complex and you never get to speak to anyone. In the end, most people give up, and that is the objective.

Thankfully, it is not like this everywhere. I have recently been to a remote area of Africa and the service was brilliant!

ALAN BROWN,

Simonburn