Becky Hobbs, a physiotherapist specialising in spinal cord injuries, will soon be embarking on a journey to raise funds for charity.

She will be riding a tandem bike from Staines, where Access Adventures, the charity she will be raising funds for, has its base all the way to Val Thorens, where Access Adventures organises its ski camps.

Becky got the idea to ride to the Alps on a tandem bike while picking up strangers along the way to help her pedal her way to the Val Thorens a few years ago, before COVID hit.

But her adventure to figure out how far she could get on her tandem bike along Europe was stopped by COVID.

Now a few years later she has decided to resume her adventure and this time use it to raise money for the Acesse Adventure charity, which is a small organisation that helps disabled people to take part in different types of sports, such as skiing and various types of water sports.

She thinks this trip will take her about three weeks to complete, or at least that is the amount of time she is hoping to be able to complete the challenge in, hoping she will get to Val Thorens in time to do some more volunteering there.

When asked what she thought would be the hardest part of the challenge, she said: “The hardest part cycling-wise will definitely be the Alps, so Val Thorens is the highest ski resort in Europe, so that’s a big climb to get in March when it can be snowy.”

But the steep hills won’t be the only problem she could encounter in this challenge as she will be taking strangers she meets along the way on the back of her bike and relying on them to help her and also relying on the kindness of people to host her and let her stay in different places along the way to rest.

She said: “Really relying on people’s kindness to get me there.”

Once she reaches Val Thorens, she will also be volunteering at the Ski camp that Acesse Active organises there.

These ski camps help people with disabilities be able to ski independently without having to rely on other people to be able to enjoy the sport.

This won’t be her first time volunteering there.

She said that she chose to support this charity because she is a physiotherapist specialised in spinal cord injuries and this charity was funded by two people who had suffered from this kind of injury and a physio and the sports that this charity helps people with disabilities to do can be life-changing for them.

She said: “I’ve done a bit of volunteering with them and I really see the difference they make and so I thought I want to try and support them, they are only a smaller charity so they need the fundraising to keep them going .”

You can follow her journey on her Instagram @humansofthetandem and can also support her by donating on her JustGiving page Humans of the Tandem

 ( https://www.justgiving.com/page/tandem-for-access?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=CL )

“Anyone else in SO22/SO23 Winchester experiencing extremely poor 4G speeds? I’ve been struggling for months with poor 4G speeds in Winchester (in the city centre mainly).” 

This was the beginning of a thread on the Vodafone community network which spans years.

User highpriest first complained about the issue back in 2018, and it has yet to resolve itself almost seven years later.

The data connection in Winchester is patchy at best and non-existent at worst. 

I investigated three main areas: The University of Winchester (King Alfred Campus), Winchester Cathedral, and the High Street.

I downloaded a speed tester app on my phone, turned on my data, and saw where it took me. 

For reference, a slow internet speed (download speed) is usually considered anything under 10 or 15 megabytes per second (Mbps), but a good speed for most activities is over 20Mbps.

The average speed for EE mobile broadband, according to OpenSignal, is 47.7Mbps download, and 9.8Mbps upload. How does Winchester compare?

THE UNIVERSITY OF WINCHESTER.

This is where I began. I, along with quite a chunk of the city population, have been annoyed with the poor data connection for quite a while now, but it was when I actually tested how bad it was that I realised how big of an issue it was.

In our campus newsroom, the app failed to work on mobile data.

The wi-fi connection wasn’t much better.

The download speed didn’t even get above 1Mbps – the 20-second average according to my app was just 0.06Mbps, and the upload speed couldn’t even register. 

I then ventured outside – perhaps it was just the fault of being in the building.

But outside the campus chapel, braving the baltic February winds, my mobile connection froze once more.

The average download speed was a measly 4.67Mbps, and the average upload was 0.12Mbps – despite my phone claiming it was connected to 5G.

Here, I also talked to second year student Izzy, who said the poor connection gave customers at her part-time job one more thing to complain about:

“So many people complain because they can’t get on the wi-fi because the signal is so bad…You can never get it anywhere. They try to get a discount, and when they can’t get it, then they’re angry at me. Do something about it, Winchester!”

WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL.

Out of the three places I investigated, this had the better data connection.

It’s a lot less busy than the other two locations on a Monday afternoon, but it still isn’t up to scratch.

At most, it reaches a download speed of 17 Mbps – before swiftly dropping to an overall average of 11 Mbps.

When I talk to two French tourists, they’re really not impressed.

They tell me they thought it was just because they were in the Cathedral, but after leaving, it became evident that the mobile coverage was simply just bad.

Another Winchester student comes by, and I ask him how he finds the data connectivity in the city centre.

“I think it’s pretty rubbish,” he says.
I managed to get a good enough connection to stream a YouTube video here – but it was low quality and took a while to load. 

WINCHESTER HIGH STREET.

“When you go into the town more, it doesn’t really connect with anything,” another Vodafone customer tells me.

While the original poster at the beginning of my investigation has since changed provider, this young woman hasn’t.

“I struggle when I need to text people, or meet up with others,” she says – so she usually tries to connect to various public wi-fi networks, though she explains these usually don’t work either. 

When I test the data strength – it doesn’t work.

The app doesn’t think I have any internet access at all.

I move around a bit to find a spot where it works, and try again.

This time, I get a download average of 8.44Mbps and an upload average of 3.60Mbps.

Far below where it should be. While it could be understandable that such a busy area would be a bit overwhelmed, that doesn’t negate the inconvenience for vendors in the street, people trying to send texts, or even those who live nearby, as one older woman points out;

“I live in the centre… I find that, in the evenings, it gets a lot slower, when everyone is home, and everybody starts using it.”

User strowger on the original Vodafone thread also commented in 2019 that they had performed their own speed tests living in the centre – 07:30am resulted in 4.25Mbps download speed, and 5.07Mbps for upload speed.

They then repeated it at 7 at night, and got results of 1.65Mbps down, and 1.26Mbps up.

This was compared to their best results in Newbury – at 108Mbps down and 40.9Mbps up.

The original poster highpriest responded with a test at Badger Farm, calling the download speed “practically useless”.

Many Vodafone employees have offered many possible causes or solutions in the thread over the years – a community manager under the username TJ suggested in 2019 that due to a local mast “undergoing some work at the moment”, which they said may be the cause of “a little extra disruption”.

User sappercaptain shared a message they had received from customer support in 2019, stating that there was maintenance work scheduled for November of the same year which should have helped, and it also linked to a status checker – which currently claims that Winchester has a near complete “good” coverage. 

highpriest also claimed a few months ago that they had written to the previous MP Steve Brine “numerous times” about the issue, as well as both Hampshire County Council and Winchester City Council, but “of course nothing happened”.

Overall, one thing is for certain: the data connection in Winchester is weak and in serious need of improvement, regardless of the data provider.

And unfortunately for us, this almost seven years long thread suggests it won’t be solved any time soon.

WH Smith’s Winchester branch could be set to close as the retailer confirms it is in talks over a potential sale of its 500 high street stores.

The firm revealed it is “exploring potential strategic options for this profitable and cash-generative part of the group, including a possible sale”.

Having opened about 100 years ago, the Winchester store has been a mainstay on the high street and residents were not pleased to hear the news.

One man said he was sad to hear of the potential closure while another resident said it was “a great shame”.

The Winchester branch includes the city’s main post office and one man claimed the closure would have “a terrible affect” on older people.

The Winchester store’s area manager was approached for a comment.

WH Smith said there was “no certainty that any agreement will be reached” and confirmed it would provide updates when appropriate.