It has been a slow month for news on slow internet connections. But we have still managed to collect a few articles related to rural broadband.
28 August – Rural broadband: still life on a branch line
The UK now boasts some of the best average broadband speeds in Europe, but this still leaves a large number of businesses in the slow lane. Read more…
27 August – Fibre broadband arrives in Isle of Wight’s rural communities
Residents in rural parts of the Isle of Wight will now be able to connect to fibre broadband. The first cabinet to be ‘switched on’ as part of the Isle of Wight’s multi-million pound rural broadband project is now serving 240 homes and businesses in Shorwell. Read more…
See also: http://onthewight.com/2014/08/27/first-rural-broadband-cabinet-goes-live-today/
21 August – Is FTTC enough for the UK’s future superfast broadband needs?
The short answer is not with current technology. However there is a lot of research work going on to increase FTTC capacity. In contrast, FTTH networks obviously have the capacity to carry this growth in traffic now, providing comparatively unlimited bandwidth that scales for the future. In the US, Far East and other parts of Europe, more and more FTTH networks are being deployed, with a huge impact on the economy, public services and the daily lives of citizens. The risk is that many places in the UK will slip behind international competitors if they don’t have the networks in place to underpin growth. Read more…
15 August – Rural broadband reaches West Oxfordshire with a little help from the PM
The West Oxforshire parish missed out on nationwide broadband funding last year because of limited budgets. The community lobbied for two and a half years to secure funding from the state to help implement the new network. Speaking on behalf of the parish, local resident Graham Shelton told The Telegraph that this project would never have come to fruition without the Prime Minister. “None of it could have happened without his personal intervention, just at the moment when the project could have floundered,” he said. Read more…
12 August – Thousands of rural homes have access to faster broadband
Almost 22,000 homes have been given faster broadband access thanks to the Superfast Northamptonshire project, according to the county council. Fifteen roadside fibre broadband cabinets in these communities have just ‘gone live’. Read more…
8 August – One million UK properties on ‘superfast broadband’ after investment
The UK’s culture secretary has said that more than a million properties now have access to “superfast broadband speeds” as a result of a government-backed rollout of the tech. But many have questioned the quality of access and speeds advertised. The government has also set aside millions to improve broadband access in rural areas. But BDUK, the group set up to spend the £530m of government money for the rural internet initiative, has come in for criticism for delays in distributing funds to councils and for awarding every contract to BT. Read more…
7 August – Wales is ‘bridging the gap’ with superfast broadband coverage – but still lags rest of UK
Wales is catching up in the rollout of superfast broadband, new Ofcom research has revealed. But the research also shows that, despite the increase in the availability of new broadband services, the proportion of adults in Wales who had signed up to broadband (71%) was six percentage points lower than the UK average. And many small firms and rural residents reported problems with poor mobile phone coverage and unreliable internet. Read more…
By using interviews and focus groups this project will focus on how people living and working in rural areas are affected by the unavailability of adequate Internet connections.
