Peterborough: a positive example of broadband connectivity

This is an age where 24/7 connectivity is vital for for businesses to thrive. Surprisingly, not all of the UK is completely with the times. On many an occasion, connections may be lagging or extremely slow in coffee shops, restaurants or even particular suburbs. In fact, there are occasions where the connection disappears altogether depending on location - the infamous 'black-hole' experience.

Peterborough is a city that is with the times. In 2013, the Peterborough City Council entered into a digital partnership with Vodafone and CityFibre’s Fibre-to-the-Premises programme with the objective to provide full-fibre broadband network too all businesses, homes and other firms throughout the city.

Just after three years of the rollout, all major business parks have now switched to fibre broadband, more than 25% of organisations across the city have registered and over 100 council sites have connectivity. The programme also added an additional 220 CCTV and wifi sites.

According to the University Centre Peterborough, the connectivity throughout the city was very slow and considered a reason for poor business performance prior to the partnership. However, once the rollout was complete, it was found that businesses could be more competitive and companies with multiple sites were able to accommodate working remotely.

Society is heading to a completely online approach such that documents are not even held in hard copies anymore. So the impact of a slow or lagging connection, let alone no connection at all can have catastrophic financial consequences for all operations requiring an online platform.

Property Week forecasts that by 2050, 11 billion people will be demanding connectivity equality across the globe. The question is whether the UK will be able to accommodate this demand. Peterborough provides a positive example which the rest of the UK can learn from.

Countries like South Korea and Iceland may already be ahead of the UK in the connectivity race.