Rural internet users could pay more for superfast broadband

BT Openreach allowed to charge extra for installing full fibre lines in areas with slower connection speeds

RURAL households could face higher broadband bills than those in towns and cities, under new proposals from Ofcom.

An overhaul of the regulations governing Openreach, the arm of BT responsible for the national telecoms network, means providers could face different charges in different parts of the country.

As an incentive to lay faster “full fibre” broadband lines in rural areas, which account for nearly a third of the UK, Ofcom will allow Openreach to recover the costs by charging higher fees to use the network.

Broadband providers such as Sky and Talktalk, which rely on Openreach to serve their customers, would face higher charges in the countryside and could choose either to spread that cost across the country or to charge rural households more.

Britain is lagging behind European rivals in the race to build full fibre networks. Less than two million households – around one in 20 – is able to access them, compared with tens of millions of homes in France.

The Government has set a target of 15 million households by 2025 and nationwide availability by 2033.

Ofcom said its proposals, which are now open to consultation, are aimed at encouraging investment and ensuring that “no one is left behind”.

Analysis conducted last year found that broadband speeds in rural areas are up to three times slower than those in neighbouring cities.

In rural areas of North Yorkshire residents have an average download speed of 30.2mbit/s, compared to 102mbit/s in York. The Daily Telegraph has been campaigning for better broadband supply to rural businesses and homes.

In 2017 the Government announced that a high-speed broadband connection would be made a legal right for everyone in the UK by 2020.

An Ofcom spokesman said the regulator “cannot rule out” the costs being passed on to customers, but suggested that providers “could decide to find efficiencies elsewhere”.

The spokesman added: “Full fibre gives customers much faster and more reliable broadband, as demand for data soars. We want everyone across the country, whether they’re in a city or a hamlet, to get full fibre broadband. This will require significant investment, which the companies who build these networks should have the chance to recover.

“However, we think it is unlikely our proposals will lead to people in rural areas paying more than customers in towns and cities.”

Across the country, frustrated villagers and countryside-dwellers have been taking matters into their own hands.

One of the most recent DIY broadband projects was staged in Michaelston-y-fedw, which is only 10 miles from Cardiff city centre but had such a bad internet connection that residents were unable to watch Youtube videos or download films.

Residents in the village (population 300) dug miles of trenches to install their own cables. They clubbed together and put in £150,000 of their own money to secure a superfast connection speed, supplemented by £100,000 in EU funding and a Welsh Government scheme.

Carina Dunk, a villager, said: “It used to take a few days to download a film, now it takes less than a minute.”