Action call over rural broadband black hole

Oct 12 2007 by Steffan Rhys, Western Mail

BROADBAND black holes still exist across large areas of rural Wales, putting the nation at risk of falling economically behind the rest of the UK, it was warned yesterday.

In a paper entitled Pushed to the Periphery, the Mid Wales Partnership calls for urgent planning and investment for an affordable and ubiquitous high speed broadband infrastructure across rural Wales, if the area is not to be permanently on the wrong side of the technology divide and if Wales is to compete in a global economy.

According to BT, 99.6% of Wales’ population now has access to broadband. But this figure drops dramatically in more rural parts of the country.

The Welsh Consumer Council says only 77% of people in Powys, Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire have access to broadband. In the South Wales Valleys, 87% of people have access, 94% in North Wales, and 95% in South West Wales, Cardiff and South East Wales.

Mark Elliott, lead officer for the Mid Wales Partnership’s ICT advisory group, said the unavailability of broadband, which he labelled “the fourth utility”, to parts of the country was down to a combination of factors, including the limitations of the current, outdated infrastructure.

He said establishing who was responsible for improving the broadband network in rural Wales, whether it was BT or the Welsh Assembly Government, was “the billion pound question”.

“The question is who should renew the line to the property,” he said.

“BT can say they’re a private company, so it’s not up to them, while the Assembly can say it’s a market issue. It’s probably not for any one body, so it could be a public-private partnership.

“We should look at this as if it were roads or electricity. A high bandwidth data communications infrastructure is not seen as being as critical and as important as roads and other infrastructure services, yet can offer the greatest economic, social and environmental gains.

“Another message we get is ‘let demand create supply’ but that is nonsense with broadband, which creates its own supply, as YouTube proves. You give them more bandwidth and entrepreneurs come out of the woodwork.”

The WAG’s Broadband Wales Programme was formally closed on March 31, 2007, having achieved its targets of increasing the awareness and availability of broadband across Wales.

WAG said that since the programme’s launch, broadband take-up within Welsh homes and businesses had risen from 6% to 43%, mirroring the UK average.

Meanwhile, the Assembly’s Broadband Benefits Report estimates that the net benefit of broadband on the Welsh economy is at least £1.4bn.

There had been a general assumption that when the Assembly entered a contract with BT in March 2006 to provide the broadband infrastructure for remaining exchange areas in Wales, everyone who wanted broadband would be connected.

But areas like Dolfor and Llaithddu, near Newtown, Llanwrthwl, near Builth Wells and Bronwydd, near Carmarthen, still cannot get broadband.

Brecon and Radnorshire MP Roger Williams said, “There needs to be a comprehensive look at the situation. There are still black holes in Wales.

“I have been trying to get BT to step forward and get everyone on broadband but rural Wales is left at a disadvantage to the rest.

“One family I know have just refurbished a barn complex and thought they would have broadband but they haven’t.

“Their business is selling cars online and they have been completely pole-axed.”

Ralph Carpenter, a photographer from Bronwydd who has campaigned for broadband access for his village for three years, said, “It’s high time someone grasped the nettle and brought us into the 21st century.

“Millions of people in the UK enjoy riding the superhighway of technology while we are abandoned on a side road.”

A BT spokesman said, “Every exchange in Wales is broadband enabled. We have never said we would be able to provide broadband to everybody.

“ The fact remains that only a very small proportion of people in Wales can’t get broadband and the challenge for BT and the Assembly is to remedy the situation.

“But it has to be commercially viable for us. We need a return on our investment.”