The Government will investigate delays by Openreach to the rollout of superfast broadband in Cheriton, Bramdean and Kilmeston after Meon Valley MP Flick Drummond raised the issue in parliament this week.
Flick mentioned that despite funding through Building Digital UK (BDUK) nothing has happened.
“The communities of Kilmeston, Bramdean and Cheriton had a gigabit voucher approved by BDUK more than a year ago but, since then, Openreach has delayed things,” Flick told MPs.
“First, Openreach told constituents that BDUK was the hold-up on approving the gigabit programme vouchers. When I contacted BDUK, it turned out it had not been given all the information it had requested.
“Since then, Openreach has dithered about installing the fibre. Again, constituents were told SSE was the blocker. I met SSE and it turned out that every other telecoms provider agrees nationwide licences with SSE for its poles to carry cables, but Openreach has not. Openreach has agreed to pay for the licence for this project but there is apparently a delay in getting the payment made to SSE.
“That nonsense had been dragging on for months, and I understand the sheer exasperation of my constituents.”
The MP explained a couple of senior public servants in the villages were given fast broadband but Openreach bypassed many others including the director of NHS emergency services; a consultant orthopaedic spinal surgeon; three GPs; a CEO responsible for vehicle fleet support for 12 police forces.
Others still in the cyber slow lane were: a project manager for a national mobile telephone company, a project manager for SSE, a senior TV news correspondent and the editor of a national sports newspaper.
“I complained about this to the CEO of Openreach and I got diverted to the MPs’ complaints department. Does he know how his company is performing in rural areas? I will keep battling on to break this logjam, but perhaps it would be useful for Ofcom to look into how different infrastructure owners work together in practice. Although we have guidelines, it seems more can be done to facilitate getting cables installed.”
Flick also told the Westminster Hall debate that one company, now branded as Trooli but originally Call Flow, has told residents of Woodlands that it is discontinuing its services.
“That has come out of the blue, with minimal information supplied,” she explained. “They are being told to switch to 4G [but] the trouble is there is no 4G in that area.
“Although Trooli says it is within its rights to do this, surely it is unacceptable that a company that has had public money to set up its network can simply walk away from it, when there is no viable replacement.”
Digital infrastructure minister Sir John Whittingdale said his department would investigate the points raised with Flick about both companies and it would get back to her.
