I attended a dinner at Linden Hall near Morpeth last week hosted by BT, Northumberland County Council, the North East Chamber of Commerce, and the Countryside Land Association to discuss the roll out of superfast broadband in Northumberland.
The Government’s ambition is that the UK should have the best broadband network in Europe by 2015, with 90% of homes and businesses having access to up to 40MBps superfast broadband and the balance should have access to at least 2MBps.
BT and Virgin Media are in the process of building out their optical fibre networks but will only invest in areas where it is economically viable. This means that approximately one-third of the UK will miss out.
Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) part of the Department of the Culture, Media and Sport, has been set-up with a fund of £530 million from the TV licence fee to bridge the gap. Local County Councils are to apply for the investment by developing a local broadband plan.
In Northumberland it’s a question of geography. It is the largest county in England but the least populated. The 2001 census recorded 307,190 people living in 130,780 households spread across 1,936 square miles.
The county has some of the most rurally isolated premises in the UK. 71% cannot be reached by commercial projects according to BDUK which has allocated £7 million as its contribution to bridge the gap. Meeting the Government’s goal will almost certainly demand three or four times this level of investment requiring Northumberland County Council to seek additional sources of funding.
Rural businesses in Northumberland need superfast broadband services to innovate and compete effectively as commerce moves to the web. It’s key to the growth of the economy to support existing industries such as agriculture and tourism and attract new types of industry creating jobs so that young people stay in the county.
I live in a tiny hamlet north of Rothbury but work in London and Newcastle. Cartographers would almost certainly deem it deeply rural. The local infrastructure simply won’t support my business. Here’s a typical example: on Sunday night I tried to send a 110MB audio file via a web service. It failed to complete overnight and so I had to use the post. Likewise transferring photos, video and conferencing all push the broadband infrastructure beyond its limits.
Broadband marketing by service providers always focuses on download speeds. Upload speeds are typically much slower. My domestic service has a download speed of 3MBps but uploads are less than 10% of this speed. Only fibre-based superfast broadband will close this gap.
Demand is clear. Campaigns last year by local councillor Steven Bridgett and campaigner and 2010 Conservative Candidate for Berwick-upon-Tweed Anne-Marie Trevelyan in Rothbury as part of a BT programme to find the areas of the UK with greatest broadband demand saw Rothbury placed 29 out of 2,500 locations nationwide.
The lesson from other areas of the UK including Cornwall, Cumbria and Northern Ireland that have successfully created local superfast broadband plans is that a strategic vision led centrally is critical for success.
Superfast broadband could be transformational for the economy in Northumberland and bring numerous social benefits. It was hugely encouraging to hear that Northumberland County Council views it as its number one strategic issue. It plans to start community consultations in the next few months with a view to creating a BDUK bid for funding early next year.
It can’t happen soon enough.
Hi S, a sorry tale and you have my sympathy; the solution is obvious but the funding is the problem. To fibre up remote rural areas is, of course, very expensive and businesses need a return on investment , so unless other taxpayers are required to cough up via national or local taxation how will it be funded? Short of large state subsidies I would impose a Universal Service Obligation on the forthcoming 4G mobile spectrum licences, whilst not giving fibre speeds they would certainly be an improvement on your snail mail. C