THURROCK COUNCIL are among 11 councils criticised by the government for failing to have their draft proposals for faster broadband approved on time.
The UK Government aims to deploy superfast broadband to 90 per cent in every county with the remaining 10 per cent left to use basic broadband of at least 2Mbps.
According to the Authority, superfast broadband gives people access to speeds of 24Mbps and above.
If the Government doesn’t handle the delay appropriately, it may mean that the BDUK office will be forced to withdraw the funds allocated for the counties and use it elsewhere – however this is not yet set in stone.
Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt found the situation frustrating and said that while the majority was making excellent progress, Thurrock as well as East Riding of Yorkshire, Essex, Southend-On-Sea, Wolverhampton, Sandwell, Dudley, Walsall, Greater Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Birmingham were slowing down the process.
“Residents and businesses in (Thurrock), the Black Country, East Riding, Essex, Portsmouth, Southampton and Telford & Wrekin risk being left in the broadband slow lane unless the councils sort out their broadband plans.
“We’ve put our money on the table and now we need every council to do the same, for the sake of jobs, growth and public services in their area.”
And I thought that it was all down to BT!
Jeremy “Don’t mention the Murdoch bid” Hunt.
Surely with Hunt’s connections in Sky they could role it out in Thurrock 🙂
My broadband speed is currently 0.5 MBps, which makes working from home completely impossible!