Broadband wrangle threatens Derry jobs
A Derry based IT business could be forced to move around 30 jobs out of the city because of a lack of access to high speed broadband.
Neil Bradley, managing director of Retail Systems Technology (RST), who have been based in Campsie since 1985, says despite wanting to recruit and expand, the company is instead being restricted by the slow connection speeds available via the local Campsie BT exchange.
He says, despite many approaches, BT have refused to connect the company to the neighbouring Eglinton exchange - which would increase connection speeds twenty fold - despite the junction box being only yards from the company's office.
"Project Kelvin came all the way across the Atlantic ocean…we can't even get BT to cross the road," he told the 'Journal yesterday.
He says after numerous approaches BT initially agreed to the switch .
"This was brilliant news and we were even more surprised when we discovered the access point for this exchange was in fact just a few feet away outside our building .
"We placed the order immediately with BT and the engineers installed the cable in our premises but now BT have informed us that they are unable to activate the service because we are not in the Eglinton exchange area."
Mr Bradley says effective broadband is vital because of the hi-tec nature of the business.
"A critical element of or support service is the ability to remotely access customer sites using broadband which enables us to diagnose hardware and software issues as well as providing on-line customer training."
RST, a market leader in the supply of Electronic Point-of-Sale (EPOS) Systems, counts thousands of shops, restaurants and bars and one of the UK's biggest Universities among its clients.The company also has offices in Dublin, Belfast and Chester.
He says RST are now faced with the prospect of moving away from their Derry base.
"It is a distinct possibility that if we cannot access these essential broadband services then employment at our Campsie head office will be jeopardised as we may have no option but to relocate our support centre to one of our other offices."
Mr Bradley says he is growing increasingly frustrated - and the company increasingly hindered - by the "lack of interest in basic infrastructure." He says RST has had little assistance despite contacting elected representatives and asking Invest NI to help.
"We strongly feel that if we were a multinational or a foreign IT company more would have been done to provide this basic service."
Last night a spokeswoman for BT said the telecommunications giant were "in contact with Mr Bradley and are working with him in terms of the speed issues he is experiencing."
She says BT is committed "to delivering the fastest service available for all of our customers. "
However Mr Bradley says he has had minimal contact with BT in recent days.
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