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More criticism of ‘superfast’ broadband scheme

image of optical fibre cableClose on the heels of complaints of poor connectivity in London’s Silicon Roundabout area (news passim) and the roll-out of ‘superfast’ broadband in Wiltshire being described as a ‘scam‘ (news passim), comes more criticism of the UK’s lousy connectivity from closer to home – Thornbury and Yate, the parliamentary constituency of Liberal Democrat MP Steve Webb.

Writing in today’s Bristol Post, Mr Webb states:

Within my own Thornbury and Yate constituency some quite large villages have been told that they are not going to be included in the current plans and may have to wait for a new round of funding which will not start until 2015.

I think this is unacceptable and that is why I have set up the ‘Mind the Gaps‘ campaign to get better coverage of superfast broadband across the area. We are exploring a number of strategies to see if the gaps in coverage can be filled more rapidly. One approach is to work with local providers of wireless broadband to see if different technology can be used to reach more rural communities. Under this technology a high-speed broadband connection is made in a nearby town and the signal is transmitted from a high point in the town to a high point in the rural community, from where it can be shared wirelessly within that community to individual houses and villages. An alternative strategy is to see if local residents can in some way benefit from the fibre broadband connections already serving the village schools in many smaller communities. Some have proposed the idea of a ‘digital village pump’ whereby each community has a high-capacity fibre connection laid to a central point in the community, and then a range of technologies can be used for sharing that connection within the community depending on cost and local geography.

We wish you success with your campaign, Mr Webb. If you ever need any help with wifi, please don’t hesitate to contact us. 😉

One Response to More criticism of ‘superfast’ broadband scheme

  1. Chris Conder August 15, 2014 at 3:13 pm #

    And the best of British Mr Webb! It is really difficult to get any form of backhaul to serve rural areas because the monopoly openreach won’t sell it to you. They want to keep everyone on obsolete phone lines as that is where they make their money. The whole country is being held to ransom, and we’ll pay a hefty price in the future for the ignorance of our leaders in the superfarce that is so called ‘digitalbritain’. We are quickly becoming a third world nation in the digital world. Along with a few other countries who also have big phone monopolies.