2nd February 2010: Future (High Speed) Broadband Provision for Dorset

 At the meeting of the DAPTC Towns and Larger Councils Committee on 22 January 2010, the Chairman welcomed Helen Heanes, Senior Economic Development Officer and Tony May ICT Project Manager of Dorset County Council who gave presentations relating to the above.

Background and need for the discussion.

The hosting of the Olympics at Weymouth and Portland, in respect of Broadband, stated that two high fibre links were being put in place and that two exchanges would be updated for the Olympic events. There was a need for a business case to keep the exchange and other equipment after the games as otherwise BT could withdraw it.

Rural Communities have long expressed concerns about being left behind by fibre-based connections. The East of England Development Agency had researched the views of its residents and businesses and is due to publish a map of requirement early in 2010.  Their opinion was “Access to fast Broadband is proven to have a positive impact on the economy, increasing access to services and boosting business opportunities”.

The Government had promised a £1bn boost for rural broadband stating that “The funding would benefit rural communications and hard to reach areas without access to next generation Broadband. The investment would upgrade the UK’s digital infrastructure to bring super fast broadband to 90% of the country”.

Estimates however suggest that private investment would only reach 70% of the population by 2017. 

Private companies were already delivering super fast internet speeds of 50Mpbs to half the country, but these speeds are mostly limited to larger towns and cities.

The Government had also announced a 50p a month tax on landlines to pay for the further rollout scheme.

Broadband speeds in Dorchester were around the 3 to 4 mpbs but again this differed between download and upload speeds. Upload speeds are important to businesses but are generally much lower up to a third compared to download speeds. 

On the other hand Bournemouth has just come out top in a national survey of broadband speeds.  The average speed was by contrast 8.06 mpbs. The concept in Bournemouth was to do away with BT’s copper cables and lay new fibre optic cables in the sewers without then the need to dig up the roads.  The estimated broadband speed for Bournemouth would then be over 90 mpbs.

The Prime Minister in a recent speech stated that “by investing in the digital revolution we can bring to households and businesses all over the country internet speeds 50 times faster than most people experience today”.  He added that the private sector is investing significant sums in this but left alone they are only likely to reach two/thirds of communities, mainly urban and highly populated which are seen as being commercially viable.

The Olympic arrangements are a vital and uniquely important opportunity for our area, and one that must not be missed if we are to secure future development for the area, its businesses and the community as a whole.

A business case from both the private and public sector must be made to retain the BT infrastructure equipment and to enhance connections to it and thus to maximise its potential use equally by the urban and rural area.

Helen Heanes within her presentation gave details of an ongoing business survey that was being conducted with the business community in Dorset.  Two of the important considerations arising from her presentation were that BT did not understand the potential desire and use for Broadband in our area and that this factor would have to be proved to them to justify the retention and expansion of its equipment.

The Business survey needs a lot more input.  410 replies had been received, but Helen estimated that there were 16,000 businesses in Dorset including those working from homes.  A better response was consequently needed to help ‘prove’ the case for provision.

The survey is simple to complete and short (2 pages)

A link to the survey document can be found on the front page of the ‘Team Dorset’ website – www.teamdorset.org.uk