Bid for faster broadband for rural Derbyshire communities

A slow and unreliable broadband connection leaves a lot to be desired for. When you’re strapped for time, the worst thing that you can be hit with is an Internet speed that’s close to crawling. Whether it’s downloading a particularly huge file for work or when you’re participating in an important video conference over the web, it pays to have fast broadband speeds. Sadly, many areas in the UK are still left with poor broadband infrastructure, leaving areas with either slow connections or no Internet access at all.

That’s the main problem that the government’s Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) project is setting out to provide a solution for. The primary goal of BDUK is to provide universal broadband access to urban and rural areas of at least 2Mbps. The program is also pushing for bringing next-generation broadband networks to ninety percent of the UK by 2015.

Funding, however, is limited. This is why the Derbyshire County Council is currently carrying out a survey to determine which provision is the weakest in the county. The rural communities in Derbyshire have been called on to bring forward their issues and experiences with their broadband connections in order to make a case for faster speeds.

The information gathered from the survey will be used in future deployments and roll-outs. High Peak residents with particularly slow broadband connections will be called upon to fill out the survey by the borough council to highlight the local demand.

Ian Huddlestone, who is from High Peak Borough Council, says that although Glossop and New Mills are already hooked up to superfast broadband, many households and business establishments still struggle with slow speeds.

As part of the BDUK project, the UK government is setting aside £530 million in funding to be spread out over four years to ramp up the broadband infrastructure in the UK. Communities in Derbyshire that are not covered by the program fall under the responsibility of the Derbyshire County Council, which is working on a plan that is to be submitted to the government by the end of this year.

Source – BBC