Broadband frustration
RURAL DERBYSHIRE HOMES BEING ‘OVERLOOKED’
A COUNCILLOR has lambasted a technology firm for “cherry picking” new housing estates for high-speed internet, leaving rural Derbyshire high and dry.
Councillor Steve Bull, who represents the Ashbourne division on the county council, claimed that efforts to boost internet quality and coverage across the county, part-funded by the authority, had become increasingly “frustrating”.
He said during a scrutiny meeting that inequality of internet coverage had been notably more clear due to difficulties faced by households during Covid-19 lockdown.
Digital Derbyshire, a multimillion-pound partnership between the council, the Government and Openreach, started in 2014 with an aim to “lay hundreds of miles of fibre cable, bringing better, faster broadband to parts of Derbyshire”.
It is said to have brought “better, faster broadband available to more than 102,000 premises”.
Cllr Bull said: “Digital Derbyshire needs to be pushed further – and we need to push the local MPs to sort out Openreach, who are just cherrypicking new estates and new housing developments and not looking after the rural areas and, in some places, in the towns, in terms of high-speed broadband.
“We need BT and Openreach to explain why they don’t look after the rural areas, which has shown up so much throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It is important we help people in rural areas and anyone who is not getting the quality high-speed broadband that they should.
“I don’t want new money being spent on what is already there, I want it being spent on people who have no connectivity. It is frustrating. We are hitting a brick wall.”
Tim Gregory, the county council’s new director of economy, transport and the environment, said there has been, in recent months, a significant amount of frustration. The council has announced it is spending a further £500,000 on the scheme. It will double the amount of support to eligible households and businesses with broadband speeds of less than 100Mbps in rural parts of Derbyshire which are entitled to it and help pay for the cost of installing faster and more reliable comms.
The new funding means these homes and businesses could now apply for up to £3,000 per household and up to £7,000 per small-tomedium-sized business.
Cllr Simon Spencer, deputy leader of the authority and cabinet member for highways, transport and infrastructure, said: “The pandemic has highlighted how important it is to have access to fast and reliable broadband.
“Whether it’s keeping in touch with loved ones or working from home, the demand to be digitally connected has increased and this extra investment by the county council will further help to bridge the digital divide.”
A spokesperson for Openreach said: “We’ve done a huge amount of work through the Digital Derbyshire programme – we’ve already reached more than 100,000 premises across the county, some of them in the most hard-to-reach areas.
“A couple of months ago, we announced 11 new Derbyshire locations to be included in our nationwide rollout of full fibre.
“This is under way in some places and about to start in others. It will make full fibre – some of the fastest broadband speeds in the country – available to market towns and villages across the county.”