People in Whiteley, Warsash, Titchfield and Locks Heath are struggling with intermittent, poor or simply no connection to a network. Residents this week met with me to talk about the daily struggle they have with their broadband connection.
Mrs Michelle Perry, of Whiteley, met with Suella this week. She said:
"It is quite unbelievable that to me that an urban area such as Whiteley cannot support its residents with an acceptable broadband service, yet more houses are planned here.
"It is absolutely disgraceful that this issue with broadband in Whiteley has remained unresolved in so many years.
"A good internet signal is a necessity for modern living, not a luxury."
I organised a meeting with representatives of BT, Virgin Media and Hampshire County Council to discuss ongoing problems with broadband in November 2016, attended by around 70 people. At the meeting BT announced that they were planning to install 5 new cabinets in Whiteley in a bid to improve services in the area. BT are also planning on replacing faulty wiring and to repair the exchange as part of an engineering works programme. Compensation will also be provided by BT to affected customers. But, despite these pledges, there has been no improvement.
Residents still face total failures to connect to a network, slow speeds of 1MB or less, and general poor connectivity which has led to phone line drop outs, no digital service for televisions, and intermittent or no connection to the internet.
People, families and businesses in Whiteley, Titchfield and Locks Heath are struggling on a daily basis just to get online.
This frustrates residents and stops local businesses from growing and capitalising on online markets. In the digital era this cannot go on.
Service providers must step up their game and get this problem sorted. People really cannot go on living like this, so much of modern life revolves around good connectivity.
I am organising another meeting for local people with providers in early November, and will put out more details soon.
Broadband in the UK has been evolving at a rapid pace. As recently as 2004 only 50% of UK households had internet connection. Even in 2010, only 45% of households had access to superfast services in the UK.
Compare this to today, when more than 80% of the UK can access superfast broadband services, with services being made available to 40,000 extra premises every week and it is becoming more affordable as the average price of a broadband package decreased by 48% between 2004 and 2012. 4G is also spreading rapidly across the UK. Despite this, there are still areas of the country struggling with intermittent, poor or simply no connection to a network.