Slow broadband will force IT firm to move (From Evesham Journal)

Slow broadband will force IT firm to move

8:00am Monday 22nd October 2012 in Evesham By Sarah Taylor

A VALE businessman may have to move his company due to the poor quality of broadband in his village.

Tim Walton, of Newtown, Offenham, had been hoping he would get superfast broadband as part a nationwide roll-out by BT.

But the scheme only applies to two-thirds of the country and despite fibre optic wires being laid to two cabinets supplying the faster broadband in Offenham, only one has been connected to the mains power, leaving half the village with a bad connection.

“About two years ago we were told we would be able to get BT Infinity in Offenham,”

said Mr Walton, who runs Evesham Solutions Ltd from his home. “For them not to finish the last tiny part of the job is very frustrating.

We are stuck with an unreliable 1Mbps connection.

If somebody rings the house it dips out.

“I have an IT business. If I can’t get this sorted out I will have to get an office elsewhere. It is having a big impact on the business.”

A spokesperson for BT said: “Additional installation costs and technical challenges mean that we can’t currently include this cabinet in our superfast rollout plans.” The final third of the country not included in BT’s roll-out plan are now relying on national and local government funding to improve connections.

Worcestershire County Council is hoping it can start work on its broadband improvement plan next year. The authority has already earmarked £8.5 million to faster web speeds, and has secured £3.3 million from Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), a Government body, to add to the kitty.

BDUK is expected to get approval from the EU by the start of November to spend its cash.

The plan aims to provide access to superfast broadband, which is defined as more than 24Mbps, to 90 per cent of businesses and residents in the county by 2015, with everyone else having access to at least 2Mbps.

Coun Simon Geraghty, county council cabinet member for economy and infrastructure, said: “We know faster and more reliable broadband is important to local people but crucial to local businesses. It is too early to say exactly when broadband speeds will be increased in specific areas but there is still the chance to register demand.”

Visit worcestershire.gov.

uk/broadband to register demand or visit a library to pick up a hard copy.