The £100m Superfast North Yorkshire project has now been completed with 200,000 plus premises having benefitted from a broadband boost.
Tue, 2/08/2022 - 10:09
Without meaningful engagement between the Welsh and England governing bodies, the UK administration will create a gigabit scheme that does not meet the needs of Wales, warns a report by the Senedd’s Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee (CCEIC).
The report points to Wales’ mountainous topography creating more hard-to-reach areas than elsewhere in the UK.
Lee Waters MS, the Deputy Minister for Climate Change said: “UK funding (in reference to the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme) has failed to reflect the true cost of deploying in the Welsh landscape”.
The Welsh government was providing top-up funding to scheme to “plug the gap” in Wales but stopped this from 31 March 2022.
The CCEIC is now calling for the UK Government to raise the amount of support available for individuals and businesses to address the needs in Wales.
The report also suggests that satellite and 5G investment should be increased, as these may be more viable options for rural Wales.
In this report the CCEIC also notes the concerning lack of uptake for fibre services and the lack of knowledge of social tariffs amongst the country’s poorest residents.
It puts forwards ten recommendations for the government to improve broadband in the country, which can be found here: https://bit.ly/3SnMvK6
CCEIC Chair, Llyr Gruffydd MS (pictured), said: “Everyone in Wales, not just those in urban areas, should be able to access a high-speed internet connection - this shouldn’t be a luxury.
“Many of the issues we examined are non-devolved so we urge the Welsh Government to take on board our recommendations and present the solutions in this report to the UK Government - or the failures we see in this report will be repeated.”
