Local councils join Telegraph's Better Broadband campaign
Hundreds of local councils have signed up to The Daily Telegraph's broadband campaign, after it warned that Britain's rural areas faced becoming a “digital twilight zone”.
More than 370 councils in England and Wales are backing the campaign calling on the government to provide basic broadband for families in areas that are hard to reach. The campaign was launched after the government announced that basic broadband would not be extended to the final five per cent of the UK because, according to them, many people “do not want to be connected”.
The campaign states that this means up to one million homes will have to request broadband connection and, in many cases, would have to pay the additional costs towards infrastructure to get connected.
The campaign comes off the back of the consultancy period for the new Universal Service Obligation (USO) where the Prime Minister promised that all households would receive 10Mbps speeds as standard. However, during the consultancy period, Digital Economy Minister Ed Vaizey stated that it would only be a “near-universal” rollout.
The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents the councils, has now joined The Daily Telegraph's Better Broadband campaign. Mike Hawthorne, chairman of the LGA's People and Places Board, said: “The government’s planned commitment to universal broadband across the country is a significant step forward.
“However, there is a real concern that, as the broadband needs among households and businesses in rural areas grow, they will be left lagging behind because the national minimum standard quickly becomes obsolete.
“This is why it is paramount the minimum standard is continuously monitored and reviewed, and it keeps track with national average speeds and that speeds users experience at peak times are still within minimum standards.
“Without this there is the real possibility of some areas — particularly in rural and hard-to-reach areas — falling into a digital twilight zone."
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