Communities ‘undermined’ as users stuck in internet slow lane

Residents living in Selby and Ainsty are among the worst connected to broadband in the country, with 53 per cent of people forced to endure slow speeds despite the growing importance of broadband to businesses and daily life.

Forty per cent of people in Richmond and Hull East are also in the internet slow lane, according to figures released as MPs united yesterday to express the importance of access, particularly to rural parts of the country.

MPs are warning the Government must fulfil a commitment to give every home and business access to a basic broadband connection by 2015 and for the country to have the “best superfast broadband network” in Europe.

But MPs are also raising the pressure on the telecoms regulator, Ofcom, amid fears rural areas could miss out on the next generation of mobile broadband. Good access is more important than ever in remote areas for businesses to operate, residents to cope with a lack of public transport and children to use the internet for schoolwork.

Ofcom is currently consulting on the conditions to be attached to the looming sale of the next generation of mobile network licences – known as 4G (fourth generation) and needed to cope with massive increases in the likes of video-streaming and social networking sites – and wants 95 per cent of the country to be covered.

But MPs are pressing for that to be increased to 98 per cent amid frustration that the £22bn sale of licences for the third generation still left swathes of the countryside in a blackspot.

“For those of us lucky enough to represent beautiful rural constituencies we are used to Fridays and weekends with little phone signal,” said Skipton and Ripon MP Julian Smith. “The 3G spectrum, sold off for so much money, has left many parts of rural Britain not covered. We must make sure this does not happen with 4G.

“Some will say it does not make economic sense. But it does not make economic sense to hold entrepreneurs back. Broadband is becoming the glue that holds our economy together. Without it, businesses cannot function and people’s lives are poorer.”

Scores of MPs backed a Commons motion recognising that “rural businesses and rural communities across the UK are isolated and undermined by slow broadband and the lack of mobile voice and mobile broadband coverage” as the Commons debated the issue yesterday.

Tory MP for Penrith and the Border Rory Stewart, said the auction of 4G licences was the “last chance we have for a generation to provide good mobile broadband coverage to six million people who will not otherwise get it”.

The Government wants everyone to have access to broadband speeds of at least 2Mbps by 2015 – three years later than Labour says it would have done so – as well as 90 per cent of the nation being linked to superfast speeds. North Yorkshire is one area which will be piloting the use of money from the BBC licence fee to roll out superfast broadband to remote areas where it would not otherwise be commercially viable.

Shadow Digital Economy Minister Ian Lucas said: “With 18 per cent of the population in low speed areas, the Tory-led Government need to reassess their plans to delegate implementation to local authorities. This is a major national infrastructure issue like the road and rail networks, and will define how well Britain can compete in the international market.”