Several constituents have been in touch about problems with broadband and I have now met with communication companies to discuss Broadband connectivity and mobile coverage in the local area, and called on the government to continue making the issue a priority.
I met representatives of BT and Three to discuss their plans for the Fareham area, and raised with them ongoing problems in parts of the constituency. Residents in Whiteley and Tanner’s Gate have reported problems with slow broadband speeds, whilst in some other areas of the constituency access to mobile broadband has been difficult.
I also joined other MPs from across the political parties in delivering a letter to Number 11 Downing Street calling on the Chancellor to continue making investment in extending broadband coverage.
The letter, also signed by other members of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Broadband and Digital Communication, sets out recent figures showing that 17% of the UK population remains without access to superfast broadband, with 500,000 households still living without even basic broadband, with average speeds of less than 2MBs per second.
The Government has done great work on broadband in recent years, with over £1 billion invested and over 90% of UK businesses and residents now able to access superfast broadband. But problems remain, and it’s important that we continue investing in extending coverage.
This, along with mobile broadband coverage, is a challenge for both government and the private sector. That’s why as well as lobbying the Chancellor I have been keen to discuss with the telecommunications companies the specific issues we face in Fareham. They’ve been productive discussions, and I’m now in the process of organising a public meeting with representatives of the main companies for residents to put their concerns directly to them.
* The Government, local authorities and the devolved administrations are investing £1.7 billion of public funding to bring superfast broadband to as many people as possible across the UK. In August, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) announced that 3 million homes and businesses had been reached in the UK, over and above those already reached through commercial roll-out programmes. Fareham is part of the Hampshire programme, which has been allocated over £15.2m of government funding for Phase 1 and/or 2 of the Superfast Broadband Programme. In Fareham Constituency there are 44,373 premises. Of these:
* Government estimates show that currently 41,445 premises have benefited from superfast coverage through commercial roll-out
* A further 1,890 will receive it by June 2017 under the publicly supported programme, of which 1,418 have received coverage so far.
* In the three months to June specifically, 709 of these premises have gained coverage as a result of the Phase 1 and/or Phase 2 projects.
