POWER issues are being cited as the latest delay to solving poor broadband speeds in Coopers Edge.
The estate near Brockworth suffers from poor download speeds which are typically stuck at 1MB per second. Residents in the area say that working from home, accessing the internet and downloading files is very difficult.
Broadband providers BT had told residents to expect an upgrade this week, but dreams of a high speed connection were dashed as they were not able to find a suitable power supply.
In January residents formed a group named Coopers Edge Fibre Upgrade Campaign to lobby for the connection they crave.
James Scott, co-founder of the campaign, said: "It's pretty slow progress, but I'm hopeful that we'll have our connection within six months. BT keep giving us dates for the upgrade but there's always some issue that gets in the way.
"It's really affecting residents who work from home and people who run web companies. It's a struggle to download anything and around three hours is needed to upload a three minute video."
The campaign group, which has almost 900 followers on Facebook and Twitter, said BT has continually pushed connection dates back several times.
Paul Kerton, an animator who works from home, said: "It's very frustrating because the slow connection means that I'm not as productive as I should be.
"It's frustrating that BT keep holding the date back. It makes me think twice about ever using them again."
Edward Buxton, Brockworth Parish councillor, said: "The problem is dissuading people from moving to an already under-occupied housing estate. The housing market is unstable enough and this problem doesn't help."
Emma Tennant, a spokesman for BT Openreach, said: "We have come up against a number of unforeseen challenges when trying to site and power the new street-side cabinet that is required to connect people in this particular part of Coopers Edge onto the new fibre optic network.
"Engineers have been exploring a number of different options and have been working hard to come up with the right solution. As a result, we hope to have the fibre cabinet 'live', and ready to take orders, before the end of the year."
