To consider a report on the provision of Broadband services to the County.

The Committee received a report on Broadband Issues in Herefordshire. 

The Senior Economic Regeneration Manager reported that, at a recent meeting with BT’s Regional Manager, the company had outlined the reasons why there were so many problems with Broadband in rural areas. When the UK telephone network had been set up, the expectation was that only 50-60% of homes would want a telephone.  Currently there was an average of 1.3 phone lines per home, and as a consequence the exchanges were finding it hard to cope.  BT was required to provide a telephone link to every home that wanted one, but was not required to provide broadband.  BT had agreed that there were a lot of areas in the County that couldn’t receive broadband, and these were being upgraded on a financial appraisal basis.  It cost BT £210k to upgrade a hamlet of ten homes to Broadband.  A survey of residents and businesses was being considered for the September issue of Herefordshire Matters.  This should establish who had experienced problems and what they were, and help the Council take forward the issue with BT.

The Senior Economic Regeneration Manager went on to say that, as had been reported at the last meeting, the Rotherwas Industrial Estate was affected by distance and cable quality issues and the broadband service there was limited to 512Kb bandwidth for most firms.   As a result businesses have had to “bond” lines or take leased lines, to give them the capacity that they required.  This issue had been discussed with BT, most recently in May, but it was unlikely that BT would take steps to improve the matter.  The Chamber of Commerce was undertaking a survey of businesses in Rotherwas so that a future sustainable service could be costed out.

In the ensuing discussion, the following principle points were made:

·         That provision of broadband to the Rotherwas Estate should be regarded as a matter of urgency, not least because jobs, and the investment in the Rotherwas Relief Road, would be at risk unless companies on the Estate had this facility;

·         That it was possible to get satellite broadband connections for companies at Rotherwas, but that this was an expensive option which made firms less competitive. It could be possible to use the Council’s infrastructure to provide sufficient data bandwidth into the Estate, and discussions were continuing, with a wireless service being the most likely solution for distribution.  Under existing legislation, the council could provide a broadband service, but would not be allowed to run it.

·         A Member suggested that, although Advantage West Midlands were not in a position to fund broadband provision directly, they were able to fund community enterprise structures.  These might be used as a vehicle to run the broadband infrastructure.

·         A Member pointed out that in rural areas there was a great deal of scepticism that the Council was actively involved in forwarding the cause of broadband provision.

RESOLVED:   That the Committee expressed dismay at the lack of Broadband provision to the Rotherwas Estate.