Rural broadband 'affected' by lack of customer service

Rural companies are missing out on business opportunities because of the failure to provide good broadband services, ministers have been told at a recent debate.

The debate, led by Bishop Auckland MP Helen Goodman, was over the recently released Ofcom review and, in particular, over poor customer service.

Mrs Goodman cited some businesses which have either closed or are struggling due to a lack of customer service and failure to respond in a prompt and adequate time, including an auctioneers, a care home and a family business.

Addisons auctioneers, for example, was forced to close with the loss of dozens of jobs because it wasn't able to offer its customers a good online service.

The Danshell Group, a care home for people with learning disabilities, paid £100,000 so that its residents could contact families and stay in touch with people outside of the care home, but has not been connected yet.

William Smith, a family business paid £30,000 to be connected in addition to a £16,000 monthly fee to connect their warehouse, but the work took 17 months to be carried out.

Mrs Goodman said during the debate: “When people are paying these colossal sums of money, and they get in touch months before they want the connection, they should expect a decent level of service. This infrastructure is vital to the country’s productivity.”

In response, Ed Vaizey stated that while connecting more homes and businesses is going well, with “more than 4 million homes connected to superfast broadband”, but that ultimately “what frustrates me is the poor customer service, which I hear about again and again from my colleagues”.

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(Image: Kainet)