Call for struggling Digital Region to trial care services on internet

Lee Strafford, the founder of local internet giant PlusNet and a member of the Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership board, said he believes the embattled Digital Region scheme offers Government the perfect opportunity to trial a new generation of home-healthcare services.

When building work is completed later this month, 80 per cent of homes and businesses in South Yorkshire will be able to access “superfast” internet speeds of at least 25Mbs – five times the UK average – giving the county one of the most advanced broadband networks in Europe.

But the scheme has struggled to attract either big internet retailers or private customers, and this week posted losses of £9.2m.

Digital Region refuses to say how many domestic customers it has, but figures are known to be low.

Mr Strafford said he believes Digital Region is now changing its focus and can become a testing ground for the NHS and other public sector bodies to trial new care services over the internet.

“The digital devices we have available today can run applications which monitor people’s health,” Mr Strafford said. “But you need a fast and guaranteed data service to monitor them remotely. Traditional broadband cannot do that – the quality must be assured when you are talking about people’s lives.

“Digital Region offers that guaranteed service. It is the only environment in the country where this could be tested at scale.”

Mr Strafford said organisations such as the NHS would pay to deliver services down Digital Region’s network – a reversal of the usual business model, where end-users pay companies such as BT to access online services.

Digital Region has been badly hampered by a series of disputes with BT, which is rolling out its own “superfast” service.

Despite the two firms being in direct competition, Digital Region remains reliant on BT for a range of services allowing it to connect its fibre-optic network to people’s homes. Council chiefs have accused BT of “trying to kill” the project, a charge BT denies.

Mr Strafford said Digital Region made a fundamental mistake at the outset when it brought in defence firm Thales as its private partner and put itself in direct competition with the company which owns the UK’s existing broadband infrastructure.

“There should have been a partnership approach with BT,” Mr Strafford said. “I have said since the beginning this was a wonderful opportunity for the public sector to work with the private sector to build an infrastructure that pushes South Yorkshire ahead.”

Since the scheme began, BT has announced plans for its own nationwide “superfast” network, covering two-thirds of the UK.

The Government has pledged £840m to extend that network to less profitable, rural areas – in effect, the very partnership approach advocated by Mr Strafford. But in South Yorkshire, Digital Region has spent public funds building a network which in many areas will soon be running parallel to – and in direct competition with – similar BT services.

Question marks remain over the future ownership of the scheme. Yorkshire Forward will be wound up in March, with its 50 per cent shareholding likely to be transferred to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).

There has been speculation BIS’s share could be sold off.

A BIS spokesman said: “We expect the shares to come to BIS, but final decisions have not been made.”