Superfast Rural Broadband Still Stuck In The Slow Lane

It’s been a fact of UK life for over a century. When Labour is in power, they concentrate on helping their natural constituency, the towns and cities, while the Conservatives when in government swing the focus of attention to the shires where most of their seats are.

Small wonder therefore that, within months of gaining office last year, the new government announced how it was going to bring superfast broadband to remoter rural areas so that farms and local businesses weren’t at a disadvantage to their urban cousins.

The Chancellor, George Osborne, nominated 4 pilot areas for the new fast broadband roll-out, North Yorkshire, Cumbria, Herefordshire and the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.

However, according to the rural pressure group, the Countryside Alliance,  it now turns out that not one of the relevant local councils had received any funds from the Treasury or selected a company to build their networks let alone started work on them.

The reasons why the main internet providers have not already built broadband networks in sparsely populated regions are, of course, well documented. The main reason is that there simply aren’t enough subscribers to justify the high capital costs of covering these relatively large areas with the necessary infrastructure.

This is the background to the government’s pledge to use public money to bridge the funding gap and, as it happens, this money has been already allocated and can’t be withdrawn. It seems that the hold-up probably lies in the fact that the local councils don’t have the necessary expertise in evaluating bids from network providers and making a final selection.

It is understood that several of the big players in network construction and maintenance have already submitted bids but are still waiting on the councils for a final decision. It looks like many digitally deprived areas of the UK will have to wait a little longer for their fast broadband salvation.