Thanet does spectacularly badly when it comes to Internet access. The average price for a "good connection" is still more than £20 a month and the quality is something out of the stone age. Offers such as £7.50 p/month for 8 Mbps from O2/Be are not available in this area.

The reason is that there are only 15 to 20 actual network operators in the UK - all other ISPs are resellers (even BT Yahoo!, which has well in excess of 1 million customers) often of BT Wholesale products (the one's with the high price). (read more here)

Almost all Internet access in Thanet runs through BT Wholesale one way or another which is why as one of the UK poorest areas we have the highest priced Internet charges. What can we do? How can we change this? (can we change this?)

Read on to find out.

The current sweetheart of brilliant broadband the £7.50 p/month broadband connection from O2/Be at the start of the year was available (throughout all of kent) only in Ash Green, Dartford, Farningham, Longfield, Paddock Wood, Sevenoaks, Swanley, Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells and West Malling while the rest of us had to stump up £22 for considerably less end result.

The problem is in the Loop, no, not the bus service (or any lack of) that covers the island but the local telephone exchange. The trick to offering high speed and low cost is to first have your equipment inside the local exchange. This is called Local Loop Unbundling (LLU for short). LLU allows companies to cempete with BT Wholesale on a somewhat even footing.

"When done right, unbundled lines offer some of the fastest and most reliable ADSL service in the market. O2's Be and Sky's LLU broadband offering are often praised."

It's not all doom and gloom. Parts of Margate can enjoy Sky's Offering but it is largely a case of take it or leave it. Here is a break down of availability at one local exchange (the one with anything in it).

Although the O2/Be offering was only available in bits of Kent there is good news in that the rest of Kent will be joining in... well parts of it: Aylesford, Barming, Bearsted, Canterbury, Faversham, Gravesend, Loose, Maidstone, Minster Sheppey, Sheerness, Sittingbourne, East and Snodland are to get LLU from O2/Be on 30th June 2008.

What are we - the poor cousin?

Apparently yes - our money is not good enough or something. Thanet does not even get a sniff at those lower prices. Actually it is more like our council didn't even know to ask and so the ISPs have gone where the local authority are more vocal. I don't have figures and facts to back that up with but it is what is indicated to me.

With LLU from a few bigger players (like O2/Be, Tiscali and others) comes a host of smaller "reseller" ISPs. This brings choice, drives down prices and improves quality for us all. With that choice comes investment and IT innovation and that largely leads to jobs. Currently Thanet gets none of that.

This, so far, has not been a positive post but here comes the good stuff - what you and I can do.

First the blog writers - don't let this subject drop. I assure you that the smart political mind monitors what is being said locally and the more often an issue is raised the more likely they are to notice. Also we can help to spread the word to our readers (see below for more on what else can be done).

There are a huge number of people that could be reading what is written locally (or writing it) and finding empowerment to engage in the local conversation and to be informed on local issues. For the council that's people who might vote for the first time, for readers that's new blogs that might be written for the first time and for us early pundits that's a bunch more people that might be reading (if we are interesting).

These guys and gals are not going to be using the internet much until those of us that are already using it start to demand the lower prices that the rest of Kent is (or is about to start) enjoying.

Ask O2/Be very nicely. I mean it - a well written letter saying that you want them to put LLU in the nearest exchange could work wonders - especially if you show them that AOL and Sky have the playing field to themselves. Companies the size of O2 do not last long without spotting demand and meeting it.

Talk to our local "authorities" aka TDC and KCC. David Green if you are reading that's you. The local council needs to understand that LLU is vital for technology investment in the area. Things like VoIP (Internet phones to you and me), Video Conferencing, streaming media and other innovations need that increased level of throughput that LLU offers.

If you want to see uptake on the (frankly weak) video media websites that Kent seems to have then users need affordable access to those sites. £7.50 a month is not going to happen unless you push for it. Therefore Thanet District Council must make it a top priority as part of it's regeneration aims if Thanet is to attract the high technology investment I've heard so much about (but not seen).

More than that LLU investment into our local exchanges will help to lower costs for schools and businesses and so get more people online. With more people actively online IT literacy will improve (as any regularly used skill does) and with that new skill set the number of job specific skills per person will increase, as can investment by IT firms and other technology lead businesses.

As Thanet comes to meet her internal skills IT vacuum so we find that local people are getting the work rather than outsiders. We all win. All of us.

It's not like nagging a few large ISPs is going to cost TDC that much money. So let us alert our councilors that they have a job to do. We have a job to do too - let's do it.