Rural broadband is set to £ 362 m boost

Remote villages in regions such as Cumbria should enjoy the funding boost for rural broadband. Photo: Charlie Hedley to guardian

Millions of Britons living in rural areas are set to benefit from internet faster speeds after the Government allocated £ 362 m to improve broadband connections in England and Scotland .

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, said Tuesday that the Fund would ensure that 90% of hard to reach communities with "painfully slow" internet speeds to access Superfast broadband by 2015.

Remote villages in the areas in regions such as Cumbria and the Scottish Highlands, where it is currently difficult to load a simple Web page, you should be able to download or stream high quality movies within four years.

English counties get £ 294 m and Scotland £ 68. 8 m to bring high-speed internet to areas not taken into account for the private sector. The assignments that come out of the £ 530 m "digital United Kingdom" Fund commitment of Chancellor, George Osborne, earlier this year.

"I definitely decided, the United Kingdom will have the best super fast broadband network in Europe by 2015 – we all enjoy," said Hunt. "Quick broadband is essential to our economic growth, to deliver public services efficiently and to implement our everyday lives.

"But some areas of the UK is missing, with many rural and hard to reach communities suffering painfully slow internet connections, or no coverage at all. We are not willing to leave certain parts of our country get left behind in the digital age. "

English Councils and private companies will be responsible for the delivery of broadband deployment, with delivery plans and match-funding expected to be drawn up to specify timetables. The Scottish Government will decide how to allocate money in Scotland.

Hunt added: "the Government is investing £ 530 m of public money to help bring broadband to all homes and business in the United Kingdom. We do our part – it is now up to local authorities and the Scottish Government to do their bit, to come on board and work with us to ensure the social and economic future for their communities. "

"I urge all those who suffer frustration over slow internet connections to make it clear to your local elected representatives that you expect them to do what is needed to access this investment and deliver broadband to your community."

Wales and Northern Ireland have already been allocated their share of the Fund for the spread of broadband.

Wales was last month given £ 56. 9 m, with the Welsh Government is expected to match the Fund to complete the rural broadband upgrade plan.

Northern Ireland is to get £ 4. 4 m as part of the program. Northern Ireland-Executive will decide how to spend the money.

Bedfordshire (Bedford, Central Bedfordshire, Luton): £ 1, 060,000

Berkshire (Bracknell Forest, Reading, Slough, West Berkshire, Windsor and Maidenhead, Wokingham): £ 1, 430,000

Buckinghamshire (Buckinghamshire, Milton Keynes): £ 2, 100,000

Cambridgeshire (Cambridgeshire, Peterborough): £ 6, 750,000

Cheshire (Cheshire East, Cheshire West and Chester, Halton, Warrington): £ 3, 240,000

Cumbria (Cumbria): £ 17, 130,000

Derbyshire (Derbyshire, Derby): £ 7, 390,000

Devon and Somerset (Devon, Plymouth, Torbay, Somerset, North Somerset): £ 31, $ 320,000

Dorset (Dorset, Bournemouth, Poole): £ 9,440,000

Durham (County Durham, Gateshead): £ 7, 790,000

East Sussex (East Sussex, Brighton and Hove): £ 10, 640,000

Essex (Essex, Southend-on-sea, Thurrock): £ 6, 460,000

Gloucestershire (Gloucestershire): £ 8, 070,000

Greater Manchester (Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan): £ 990,000

Hampshire and Isle of Wight (Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth, Southampton): £ 8, 420,000

Herefordshire (County of Herefordshire): £ 6, 350,000

Hertfordshire (Hertfordshire): £ 1, 110,000

Humber (the city of Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, North East Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire): £ 8, 540,000 (reviewed)

Kent (Kent, Medway): £ 9, 870,000

Lancashire (Lancashire, Blackburn with Darwen, Blackpool): £ 10, 830,000

Leicestershire and Rutland (Leicestershire, Leicester, Rutland): £ 3, 880,000

Lincolnshire (Lincolnshire): £ 14, 310,000

Merseyside (Watford, Liverpool, St Helens, Sefton, Wirral): £ 5, 460,000

Norfolk (Norfolk): £ 15, 440,000

Northamptonshire (Northamptonshire): £ 4, 080,000

Northumberland (Northumberland): £ 7, 030,000

North Yorkshire (North Yorkshire, York): £ 17, 840,000

Nottinghamshire (Nottinghamshire, Nottingham): £ 4, 400,000

Oxfordshire (Oxfordshire): £ 3, 860,000

Shropshire (Shropshire, Telford and Snow-white): £ 8, 210,000

Staffordshire (Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent): £ 7, 440,000

Suffolk (Suffolk): £ 11, 680,000

Surrey (Surrey): £ 1, 310,000

Tees Valley (Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, Stockton-on-Tees): £ 770,000

Tyne and Wear (Newcastle upon Tyne, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, Sunderland): £ 3, 420,000

Warwickshire (Warwickshire, Coventry, Solihull): £ 4, 070,000

To the West of England (Bath and North East Somerset, Bristol City, South Gloucestershire): £ 1, 430,000

West Midlands (Birmingham, Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall, Wolverhampton): £ 630,000

West Sussex (West Sussex): £ 6, 260,000

West Yorkshire (Bradford, Calder valleys, Kirklees Metropolitan Council, Leeds, Wakefield): £ 6, 340,000

Wiltshire (Wiltshire, Swindon): £ 4, 900,000

Worcestershire (Worcestershire): £ 3, 350,000

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Superfast broadband gets ready to go the UK-wide

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The government wants all 25m UK homes to have access to a minimum speed of 2Mbps and has a £530m fund for broadband-starved communities. Yoav Levy/Alamy

Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt will fire the starting gun on the race to turn Britain's internet "not spots" into hot spots this week by allocating a £530m fund for broadband-starved communities. Cornish fishing villages, Welsh valleys and Cumbrian farmsteads will all have access to high-speed internet within four years if telecoms companies add their money to the state pot and consumers show interest.

Hunt is expected to announce how the money, diverted from the BBC to create a digital Britain, will be shared among 40 areas including English councils, Scotland and Northern Ireland. A further £300m has been promised after 2015.

The government wants all 25m UK homes to have access to a minimum speed of 2Mbps (megabits per second), which would mean that reading web pages, making Skype phone calls or watching TV catch-up services, such as the BBC's iPlayer, will all be possible from the most remote cottage. If all goes to plan, 90% of homes will be able to get even faster speeds of over 24Mbps, enough for several computers to download video simultaneously on a single line.

The BT Group has already promised to spend its own money getting superfast, fibre-optic broadband to two thirds of households by 2015, without government help. This will cover the towns and cities, where BT can quickly recoup its £2.5bn investment. Getting broadband to those villages and valleys will be less economical, however, with lines having to stretch longer distances to reach fewer people. So will the two tranches of public subsidy, totalling £830m, be enough to reach the final third?

Where BT wins council contracts backed by the government, it is offering to match the money and it expects councils to as well, by securing other subsidies, so that just under £2.5bn should be available for the final third. The BT executive responsible for leading 19,000 engineers in building what will be the UK's largest fibre network is Olivia Garfield, chief executive of its Openreach division, which rents out BT's network to other internet providers such as BSkyB and TalkTalk. She believes universal broadband access can be achieved, but only if a mix of technologies and every available resource is used, from telegraph poles to mobile phone masts and Virgin Media's cable network – which unlike BT's infrastructure is currently off-limits to rival companies.

"It's whether you believe that the most important thing is to roll out fibre at speed in the UK to help recover from economic recession," says Garfield.

The problem is that even in neighbourhoods where BT does not have to dig up the road to lay fibre, because it already has ducts carrying its copper wires, many of those ducts are blocked or broken. If those ducts happen to serve one of the 12m homes where Virgin Media has cables, Garfield says BT will not lay its own fibre. This means many homes will have only one choice of high-speed internet supplier, which in turn threatens higher bills.

Allaying fears that Hunt's announcement will not go far enough, some regions are ensuring that government subsidy will not have to cover every rural area in the UK. Cornwall has already raised £132m to reach up to 90% of homes by 2014. BT is building the network and providing £79m of the funding, the rest is coming from Europe. Northern Ireland is well on its way, also with BT. Some smaller areas, such as the Angus Glens, have attempted to go it alone (see box).

But there are dangers for those who decide to build without BT. Hull is one of the few areas in the UK where the phone network has always been owned by the council, not BT, and broadband penetration there is lower than the national average.

For an internet service provider such as TalkTalk or BSkyB to link in to the local network requires an outlay for equipment and software, and a separate negotiation over price. Many prefer the simplicity of dealing with one network nationally, which means BT.

Of the government's £530m pot, around £150m has already been committed to Wales and a number of English counties including Wiltshire, Norfolk, North Yorkshire and Cumbria. A further 40 areas, as well as Northern Ireland and Scotland, are likely to hear this week how much they will be allocated.

BT is not guaranteed to win all the new contracts. Fujitsu, the Japanese electronics firm, has offered to reach 5m homes in three to five years, if it beats BT to secure around £500m in government subsidy. Both BT and Fujitsu will be hoping that councils club together to appoint one main contractor, allowing for economies of scale. Declaring his interest earlier this year, Fujitsu managing director of network solutions Andy Stevenson said: "We don't want to end up with 40 fragmented networks so it makes sense for regions to come together." However, fibre cannot reach everywhere. Tim Watkins, head of sales for western Europe at Chinese telecoms firm Huawei, which would like to supply equipment for the network, says the final 10% will be reached by a combination of satellite and mobile phone masts. "If you want to deliver high-speed broadband services to rural areas with six farmers, it's never going to be achieved with just fibre."

But carriers will have to take a mature approach and agree to share equipment in remote locations. Broadband expert Ian Watt at Enders Analysis believes the government funds will only get broadband to three-quarters of homes. "It's more likely that high-speed broadband will be available to the centre of the village, for example to a school, library or post office. We don't see the subsidy being enough to get it to everyone."

Garfield doesn't claim to know what will trigger demand, but believes it will come. "There is evidence that once you have access to it, the minute you've seen the new world, you would never go back. So, I don't believe there is a lack of desire, but it is a premium product, it will never be the de facto normal product," she says. Speed can be addictive. It is also of the essence if the government's dream of creating Europe's first extensive fibre network by 2015 is to become a reality.

Nestling at the foot of the Cairngorm mountains on the east coast of Scotland, the inhabitants of the Angus Glens tend to make their living from hill farming and gamekeeping. But some commute to Dundee, where hi-tech industries, like biotechnology and computer games, are among the biggest employers. With 2,400 properties across a 500 mile area, and the more remote telephone exchanges serving fewer than 100 lines, there is little likelihood of BT or another major carrier building a fibre broadband network.

When lecturer Geoff Hobson moved to the area in 2007, he concluded that if the Glens wanted a fibre network, they would have to install it themselves. The Angus Broadband Co-operative was created to raise money and provide a community ownership model. The need for better broadband infrastructure is acute. A survey last year showed that 9% of properties had no internet connection at all, while 5% had only a dial-up service. Three quarters had fixed-line broadband but of those 67% reported speeds lower than 2Mbps, the minimum needed to allow quality home working. Meanwhile, a third of local homes are used for some form of business activity.Hobson says: "If you try watching a programme online it can just give up, particularly when it's busy in the evening." With two school age children, the family's need for bandwidth will only increase.

A nearby hill farmer, whose wife is disabled, has to shop online, and her husband needs the internet to fill in government forms. But they have only dial-up access, which means no phone calls while they are using the web.

Another neighbour, a games developer who works from home, has to shuttle to and from the office with CD-Roms because he cannot send material online.

"We decided to going for a fibre network because it would be future-proof. We got some funding and drew up a plan for how to lay the cables: £9.5m is the lowest quote so far. We weren't expecting such a large figure," says Hobson. The Co-operative has approached BT about sharing its ducts, which would bring down the cost. "They appear very helpful when you have meetings and run out to be very unhelpful when they send a written response."

Hobson is waiting to hear whether his area will be included in an east of Scotland bid for government subsidy.

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UK broadband connections only half as fast as advertised, says new Ofcom under research

"Consumers do not receive anywhere near the speeds advertised by some internet service providers,» says Ofcom under chief executive Ed Richards. Photograph: Getty Images

Millions of Britons are still sold "super fast" connections that are only half as fast, as announced, according to research Ofcom underby.

Data published by the communications regulatory authorities shows that although Britons enjoyed a 10% increase in average broadband speeds around the UK for six months to may, reached 6.8 megabits per second (Mbps), compared with 6.2 Mbps in November 2010, average advertised speed was 15Mbps.

The data shown by a study of the domestic relations, 1,673 people.

The main difference in advertised and received broadband speeds came with copper-based DSL phone lines, used in more than 75% of UK homes. Customers with broadband packages offering speeds "up to" 20Mbps and 24Mbps actually received an average speed of 6.6 Mbps, according to research – and more than a third of these customers got average speeds of 4Mbps or less.

Ofcom under has long pressed for a change to the internet way ISPs, including BT and sky, announces "up to" broadband speeds, most customers are able to receive.

Ed Richards, Executive Director of Ofcom under, said: "we are now witness to consumers increasingly move to the higher-rated services and really enjoy faster speeds. Consumers also have access to better broadband information, allowing them to decide which provider to use based on actual speeds they can achieve at home.

"However, research is still telling us that some consumers do not receive anywhere near the speeds advertised by some ISPs. Ofcom under continued calls CAP and BCAP Committee to make changes to advertising their guide, so that consumers can make more informed decisions based on advertising they see. "

Advertising Standards Authority suggest advertising practice (CAP) and the broadcast Committee of adverting practices (BCAP) is expected to report in the early autumn of changes to the way in broadband speeds advertised.

Four of the largest ISPs – BT, Sky, Virgin Media and O2 – have signed by Ofcom concerning the new code of practice, which shall enter into force on Wednesday and dictate that customers should be an expected rate at point of sale.

The growing demand for faster packages – nutrition of traffic-intensive video services like BBC iPlayer and YouTube – popularity has put current infrastructure is under tremendous pressure, which means most ISPs are not able to deliver advertised speeds, especially during periods of peak usage, when large numbers of people use the services at the same time.

Customers with fibre optic connections get speeds much closer to those advertised, such as the ones from Virgin Media and Bouygues Telecom's Infinity package. Report shoes, average download speed on Virgin Media 30Mbps package was in fact marginally higher than the advertised speed.

Only about 22% of Britons have fiber optic connections, despite them being available to 57% of UK homes.

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BT and BSkyB lead broadband battle

BT enjoys the former becomes national Telecoms monopoly in the battle to dominate the broadband market. Photo: Tim Ireland/PA

The race to connect UK households to broadband network is won by just two operators, leaving a lot of competitors behind.

BT BSkyB group and surging ahead of rivals, according to a number of updates this week from the major broadband providers. The former national monopoly capitalised on its large telephone customer base to pull in an extra 141,000 broadband subscribers in the last three months.

The increase saw BT take 60% of all new customers during the quarter, consolidating its share of 20 m UK broadband home at 29%.

Sky, which reports tomorrow is forecast shows an increase of 154,000 home, after having converted several of his 10 m TV customers, and thanks to a new strategy for chasing only broad band subscribers.

However, lost Virgin Media, the second largest supplier with 21.5% of the UK's 20 m broadband-connected households, 18,600 customers after a lot of students switched their service for the summer.

TalkTalk, which was created in 2009 because carphone Warehouse internet merged its activities with Tiscali and now controls 21% of the market, lost 27,000 customers in the quarter. The company has concentrated on improving loyalty through better customer service rather than chasing new business.

Of mobile enterprises with largest broadband following, Orange has lost approximately 80,000 customers since last year, and O2 will remain flat.

' Course for the Cloud and BT, have an existing customer base, a captive audience is a huge competitive advantage in selling in other products, "says Chris Williams, of price comparer Simplifydigital.

Talktalks share price increased by 3 p to 141 p as it announced half-year results, after investors saw progress in improving customer experience and a promised £ 40 m in cost savings from the merger.

Calls to its ancillary services has almost halved in a year and three-quarters of new clients are connected within 20 days, compared with half six months earlier.

Mark James said "BT has benefited from the turmoil on the TalkTalk," at a mediator Liberum capital. But he warned: "as the market continues to grow, the sky is taking share from BT and Virgin Media. And as TalkTalk gets its act together, we want to see people make their decision based on price and BTS copper is pricey. "

BT reported a revenue dip 5% and a 20% increase in profit before tax in the three months to June 30. Its Global Services division, services business clients, won the £ 1.6bn of business in the quarter, including its biggest ever contract with the Brazilian post office.

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Average broadband speeds ' less than half of them announced, says Ofcom under the

Millions of broadband customers sold Super-fast connections, internet their providers are not capable of delivering for fire-fighting, according to new research.

Data released Ofcom under theof, communications watchdog, shows that broadband average speed is still less than half of the average advertised speed.

The report, published on Wednesday, saying that the British have a broadband average speed of 6 2 megabits per second (Mbps) — less than half the advertised average speed of 13,8 Mb.

Ofcom under pressure for a change in the way internet service providers, announces including BT, sky and O2, "up to" broadband speeds at which most customers are able to receive.

Its results will participate in a consultation now launched of Advertising Standards Authority Committee of advertising practice (Cap) and the broadcast Committee of adverting practices (BCAP) in how broadband speeds advertised. That is expected to report in the next three months.

"The research shows that Internet providers must do more to ensure they provide customers clear and accurate information on the services they provide, and the factors that may affect the actual speeds customers receive," said Ed Richards, by Ofcom concerning the Executive Director.

"It is important that the rules around broadband advertising changes, so that consumers can make more informed decisions based on advertisements they see, and that advertisers are able to communicate more clearly how their products compared to others on the market."

Ofcom under perform functional tests in 1700 homes throughout the United Kingdom in November and December last year. The report is based on the 11 broadband packages from the UK's seven largest providers, including Virgin Media and TalkTalk.

The increasing demand for faster broadband packages has led internet providers to advertise the maximum speeds, despite current infrastructure could support them. The only ISP delivers close to the maximum speed was announced, according to Ofcom under the Virgin Media, with the advantage of a relatively new cable networks in many urban areas.

Typical broadband speed received by customers was much closer to the advertised speed of fiber-optic cable packages, which they are provided by Virgin Media and Bouygues Telecom's Infinity package. However, only 22% of Britons fiber-optic connections with 77% of the population by using copper-based DSL phone lines.

The main difference in advertised and delivered broadband speeds came with "up to" 20Mbps connections provided through current-generation DSL lines. Only 3% of customers with this package received an average speed close to 20Mbps, with 69% receive an average speed of less than 8Mbps.

The overall average broadband speed increased from 5.2Mbps in may last year to 6.2Mbps in December, the report shows, which means a typical five-minute song would take just under four seconds to download, compared with only slightly more than five seconds on the slower speed.

Ofcom under recommends that broadband speeds shall be advertised in a "typical throughput lies" – the speed at which customers can expect to receive. Regulators say typical speeds must "have at least prominent" to the heading, speed, and maximum speeds should only be announced "If it is actually achievable in practice by a material number of consumers".

Under by Ofcom concerning the recommendations would ISPs advertising DSL connections of ' up to ' 8Mbps service used by the majority of Britons – be forced to reveal that the typical speed is in reality between 2Mbps and 5Mbps.

However, BT said it had "real concerns" with by Ofcom concerning the approach. "Move to the typical speed areas will potentially very misleading as the average performance will vary depending on where people live," said John Petter, Managing Director BT Retail consumer business. "Enforce typical speed areas are also dangerous it could encourage more internet service providers (ISPs) to cherry pick customers who want to increase their average leaving customers in rural areas and suburbs of under-served. That would encourage digital exclusion rather than solving it. "

Sky said the debate on the headline speeds had the potential to be a "red herring", since the existing Ofcom under the guidelines, providers must give customers individual speed estimates at the point of sale.

Jon James, Executive Director of broadband on Virgin Media, described in the report as "still a serious accusation that consumers continue to be treated like mugs and misled by Internet service providers (ISPs), which simply cannot deliver on their claims on the advertised speed."

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