FIRMS and residents have welcomed the news that rural parts of Oxfordshire are finally to have access to fast broadband, with a £14m investment to boost the local economy.

More than 200,000 of the county’s residents and 13,800 businesses are currently denied access to fast broadband.

This is despite Oxfordshire’s standing as a world class centre of cutting edge research and development.

But that is set to change, with Oxfordshire County Council preparing to sign a deal, believed to be with BT, that will see improved connectivity finally extended beyond major towns and settlements.

County Hall is ready to invest £10m with nearly £4m from the government’s Broadband Delivery UK, and contributions expected from the private sector.

The agreement should enable many more people to work from home, while ridding Oxfordshire firms, from hoteliers to architects, of a major disadvantage.

With 85,000 premises in the county unable to access fast broadband, the council said it has been left with no alternative but to throw council taxpayers’ money into solving the problem.

Nick Carter, county council cabinet member for business and customer services, said: “The market has failed and successive governments have failed to anticipate the market failure. “That is the situation that we have inherited. If it were left to market forces only about 70 per cent of premises would be able to access fast broadband speeds.”

The £14m investment should mean 90 per cent of homes and businesses will have superfast broadband speeds of 24Mbps or more, bringing it to 65,000 premises that would have been denied it.

Basic broadband of at least 2Mbps will be available to everyone else. But local business leaders have warned the county will still be faced with “a digital divide” if 10 per cent of premises miss out indefinitely.

A contract is expected to be signed during August with BT, who will provide infrastructure. A council statement said: “We are very conscious that securing this contract has taken a long time when broadband availability has become an ever more important demand for all communities.The negotiation for a contract of this complexity has to be thorough.

“We expect the delivery will be carried out in defined phases over a two year period starting in January. But considerable groundwork will be underway in advance of that.”

Frank Nigriello is chairman of Oxfordshire’ Business First, a not-for-profit company focused on innovation and a founder member of Digital Business First, the organisation campaigning for a better national digital infrastructure. He said: “The faster the access the better for business. It is great news that Oxfordshire County Council is planning to do this but it is great news for only 90 per cent of the population.

“We need the infrastructure both locally and nationally. “Centrally, it is key that the government ensures there is a regulatory framework in place and clear guidelines.”

‘Slowness is costing me thousands and wrecking business’

THE improved broadband speeds should help business people like Anthony and Peta Lloyd, of the Fallowfields Country Hotel in Kingston Bagpuize.

Their hotel business may be only 15 minutes drive from central Oxford but Mr Lloyd says the standard of broadband has left his hotel at a disadvantage.

Mr Lloyd said: “The broadband is unreliable, continuously flicking on and off. It means we cannot hold a video conferencing meeting here like hotels in the city centre. The playing field is not level.

“We are disadvantaged even for ordinary meetings/conferences, because delegates want to access their emails by iPad or laptop and serious access problems then occur. Businesses who book meetings are aware of this and avoid rural hotels for this reason. People looking for an overnight stay will, for the same reason, tend toward city centre hotels if they have a heavy demand for bandwidth.”

Mr Lloyd, who previously worked for technology company IBM, said the hotel restaurant suffers too. He said: “We want people to be able to access our website before they book for the first time. Because we know their speeds are poor, the design of our website has to be dumbed down. “Our IT support service spends half of every 15 minutes connected to us by remote support, watching his screen, waiting for something to happen. “This has a direct cost to my business of £1,500 to £2,000 per annum.”

Villagers raise £11k to do it all themselves

VILLAGERS in Islip, north of Oxford, got so fed up of their grindingly slow internet speeds that they decided to raise £11,000 themselves to have superfast broadband installed.

Residents running businesses from home said they were trying to video conference with speeds of 0.7 megabites per second and not having much success.

One elderly man relied on his “puny” internet connection to order his weekly shopping.

In a survey of 106 households, 93 per cent replied that good broadband was “essential to Islip’s future”, and 68 per cent said they used it for business as well as domestic purposes.

Parish council chairman Alison Mitchell said: “I do think it is local government’s responsibility to provide internet.

“In our survey we found quite a lot of people working from home who said it was so slow they couldn’t video conference or upload documents, which really hampers your job.

“People said they had speeds of between 0.7 and 3.3 mbps – really puny.

“Someone said to me it has almost become as important as gas or electricity.”

After BT installed superfast broadband in the village in January, people nearest the router get speeds of 80 mbps, but even those at the furthest edge of the village get between 25 and 50 mbps.