On Tuesday 8th September I attended a roundtable event in Parliament and spoke with Dave Page the CEO of technology company Actual Experience, who is exploring ways to better broadband. Mr Page explained that although the government is doing an excellent job in investing billions in bettering broadband infrastructure and into reaching 95% of UK households, infrastructure problems actually only accounts for roughly 30% of those people experiencing inadequate coverage. Another 30% of problems occur in the home and are not the fault of the local infrastructure and can be fixed by residents themselves. Indeed for example by upgrading home equipment or moving their devices nearer to the router connection problems can be improved or resolved.
Mr Page of Actual Experience, in conjunction with the Countryside Alliance, is tailoring its ‘BbFix’ project to offer constituents across the UK a free online service that analyses the quality of your home broadband connection. This is a fantastic project which can help South Derbyshire residents with their broadband as BbFix’s crowd sourced data helps create a real-time view of online quality, which is then shared with Ofcom anonymously. The data that is collected by residents joining in helps Ofcom and Broadband providers to develop a more comprehensive picture of broadband quality across the UK. To download the BbFix software yourself, follow the instructions on this website: https://www.actual-experience.com/countryside-alliance/. I would encourage all of my constituents to participate in the BbFix project from their home broadband as the more people who are involved the better picture providers and Ofcom will have in terms of where they need to invest and increase capacity.
This fantastic project will work brilliantly alongside the Government’s continuing investment in spreading superfast broadband. Since we came to power in 2010 we have spent billions on broadband infrastructure across the UK and have expanded coverage to millions more homes and businesses in both rural and those urban areas where there have been problems. The government is investing a further £1 billion in broadband and mobile infrastructure with the aim of obtaining faster speeds to 90% of the UK by 2016 and 95% by 2017. South Derbyshire will definitely benefit from this further investment from the Government. I have recently had talks with BT and they now estimate that 98% of our constituency will be covered by 2017. Bringing broadband to as many parts of South Derbyshire is of upmost importance as it is vital, not just to residents, but also the vast amount of businesses which heavily rely on a strong connection to buy, sell and conduct their day-to-day business. Broadband is therefore an important part of our long-term economic plan for a more high tech economy, it is of the upmost importance that the UK stays ahead in this fast paced world and keeps its place at the top.
In my role as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Rt Hon John Whittingdale MP Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) I do a lot of work with regards to broadband and it is definitely one of the Department’s largest issues. Along with my work within the DCMS team I will continue to seek as many ways as possible in Parliament to advance the cause for better broadband, not just for South Derbyshire, but for the whole country. I have opened talks with both Virgin and Sky to come and look at our area to see the opportunities available to them.
To summarise Broadband quality is an issue which I will continue to press on with until we in South Derbyshire have superfast coverage for 100% of residents and businesses.
(This piece was originally written for the Derby Telegraph).