Portsmouth South MP Flick Drummond has today co-signed a new report revealing there are still 5.7million people across Britain who cannot access the internet at the Ofcom required 10 Megabits per second.
The research from the British Infrastructure Group of MPs entitled ‘Broadbad’ said the number remained despite £1.7bn of taxpayers’ cash being pumped into subsidising the construction of UK high-speed broadband.
Areas of Portsmouth affected include business parks that are suffering because no fibre cable has been installed, Flick said.
'In Portsmouth South people and businesses are dealing with some really poor connections and gaps in services. The constituency essentially has no access to ultrafast internet and this need to improve substantially if we are to grow economically.
'I agree with the report that more investment and competition is needed to replace old fashioned copper technology with a fully fibre network, and I fear the BT Openreach monopoly in this area is holding the country and Portsmouth back.'
The report calls on the regulator Ofcom to take radical action over the ‘natural monopoly’ too long enjoyed by BT Openreach and it argues the modern economy is so reliant on the internet, it is time it was not held back by BT’s lack of ambition and underinvestment.