RESIDENTS on the Isle of Skye have hit out at BT after their internet connections slowed to crawling pace – just two weeks after the telecoms giant launched so-called high-speed fibre broadband for hundreds of homes there.

More than 600 users have taken to Facebook to vent their frustration and compare notes from constant data speed tests they have been carrying out. Valerie Mansley and her daughter, who live in Arnisort, both write for a magazine group in Lincolnshire and have been unable to meet publication deadlines.

She told The National the problem started more than two weeks ago, when they found they had “impossibly downgraded broadband” at speeds of 0.07 Mbps (Megabits per second) and 0.03 Mbps for uploads.

“Superfast broadband” is defined as providing download speeds in excess of 24 Mbps.

Mansley said the speeds varied slightly, but not enough to make the service useable. “By December 21 it had not been repaired and on the evening of that day, the whole thing escalated and whole areas of Skye found they had exactly the same problem,” she said.

“The dreadfully disturbing and upsetting thing is that BT do not, after literally hundreds of telephone calls and emails to every level, acknowledge the entirety of the problem, even still telling numbers of us that we have lines with no faults and broadband speeds of eight Mbps.

“We all do broadband speed checks several times a day, sometimes waiting as long as an hour and a half to get it loaded and the results are always similar.”

Allan Crabb, a member of the group’s Facebook page, posted on it yesterday: “Just to add insult to injury, BT now expect me to believe that multiple faults across the island all occurred at same time and same date – i.e. December 23... more chance of a Martian invasion force carrying out a cyber attack on broadband on Skye.

“Don’t take us for complete idiots BT. I want a full technical analysis and report on the situation now… and before you ask, YES I am fully qualified and will fully understand it.

“Additionally I have a post graduate diploma in management with many years’ experience as a regional manager with a major telecoms company so I recognise b******t when I see it.”

Local MP Ian Blackford has now taken up the case and, although he was not affected by the poor broadband service, he said he had been without a phone service for six days, and appreciated the difficulties poor connectivity brought.

“The fact that I didn’t have any connectivity for six days brought home to me exactly what my constituents are suffering,” he said.

“People expect broadband connectivity, especially at this time of year when they want to play games or chat to distant relatives and the like.

“But the second aspect is that many people on the island work from home. They may be writing, taking holiday bookings for rentals or hotels and they’re finding it very difficult to connect with their customers.

“And of course their customers will go elsewhere if they can’t get through to them.”

He added: “The fact that there are so many issues at holiday times when capacity is limited to deal with this obviously adds to frustrations.”

Blackford said BT had promised him a full report on the problems early in the new year.

A BT spokesman said: “We have been working on a transmission issue which has been causing slow broadband speeds in parts of Skye.

“Two faulty cards were replaced at Portree exchange yesterday and engineers are working to rebalance broadband traffic on alternative routes to increase speeds. Separately, we are working on plans to improve broadband connectivity across the island.

“Meanwhile, it is important that all internet users log faults with their own service provider.”

He added that there wold be more fibre broadband in Portree and across the island as the roll-out “gathers pace” in the new year.