I held a meeting for frustrated Fareham residents to speak directly with service providers over constant broadband problems.
Over 40 residents of Whiteley, Warsash, Titchfield and Park Gate met with representatives of Openreach, Hampshire County Council and Onecom at Titchfield Community Centre. But BT, a major service provider in the area, did not send a representative.
The meeting gave local people a chance to highlight the problems they face day to day due to poor broadband speeds, intermittent signals and total line dropouts.
One resident of Whiteley said to me "how can a modern housing right next to a hi-tech business park be so far behind on broadband infrastructure, capacity and technology, making it impossible to do anything on IT beyond the basics. When our broadband is working we normally get 1 to 4 MBs which is hardly usable for much more than email."
At the meeting, Openreach confirmed it will carry out assessments in areas currently experiencing poor speeds, while it also committed to install FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) around Titchfield Common. At Whiteley, one of the worst affected areas, Openreach confirmed that an extra cabinet will be installed and slow broadband issues are expected to be remedied by end March 2018. Openreach also committed to properly investigate areas that have recently been upgraded, but which still receive reports of slow speeds by residents.
Representatives of Hampshire County Council informed residents that Fareham currently has 92% coverage, and is has plans to extend this to 99% by 2019. The Council announced at the meeting that residents experiencing less than 2mb per/second, a new satellite system will be made available to improve their service.
I would like to first thank all the residents who attended the meeting. I will keep working to make sure action is taken and commitments are kept.
There are still far too many people facing ongoing broadband problems, BT and others need to make sure their customers get what they pay for and ensure that real improvements are made.
There is still much to do, but I welcome the commitments made by Openreach as a step in the right direction.