County stuck in slow lane

Grabbing his mobile telephone, Mr Elles had intended putting The Oxford Times in touch with a company boss, suffering like many others in Oxfordshire, because of the lack of fast broadband and mobile coverage, in a county famous for leading the world in cutting edge science and technology.

The MEP’s face darkened as he stared at his impressive looking phone in disbelief. “I can’t get a signal,” he said before the frown was replaced with a wide grin at the delicious irony.

For nothing could have made his point more tellingly. We were not on the edge of the Cotswolds or even in a remote Chilterns inn, but in the Randolph Hotel in the heart of Oxford.

Only a few minutes before he had been addressing a future technologies conference, hosted by Oxford University, which happened to be sponsored by the mobile company Voxline.

The disquiet of local mobile and broadband users right across the county over two years is now being replaced by angry calls for action, with the county’s future prosperity said to be at stake.

Mr Elles does not believe he is overstating things when he says: “The lack of broadband and mobile coverage in Oxfordshire, especially in remote and rural areas, is having a serious impact on both the private and business environments.

“Unless action is taken, this presents a severe risk for the future competitiveness of the county. It is unacceptable that we expect business in Oxfordshire to operate without the necessary basic infrastructure to be competitive in today’s world, never mind tomorrow’s.”

Last month, the extent of Oxfordshire’s broadband problems were spelt out at a digital summit held in Culham that brought together businesses, providers and politicians.

Hugo Pickering, of Witney, set out just how far Oxfordshire has fallen behind in a document he co-wrote that has been submitted to Oxfordshire County Council.

It shows some 17 per cent of Oxfordshire users currently get less than 2mbps, and of these 90 per cent live outside Oxford. While Virgin Media cable services provide high-speed broadband to half of the UK population, it currently reaches only 28 per cent of homes in Oxfordshire.

Mr Pickering said: “The UK in general is a poor performer in terms of true broadband provision — and Oxfordshire is falling behind in county league tables.”

A survey by Oxford’s Said Business School ranked broadband quality in the UK in 66th place, behind even developing European nations like Estonia and Bulgaria.

In terms of city rankings, Birmingham was the highest ranked UK city at 70th, with Oxford outside the rankings.

A table of 376 local authorities placed Oxford at 93rd. But the Vale of White Horse was ranked at 271, Cherwell at 235 and West Oxfordshire at 178.

There has never been a shortage of personal anecdotes.

Betsy Kendall, head of a firm of business psychologists, told a meeting of local business leaders how to obtain a good reception on her mobile phone — she had to go to the third floor room of her home in Old Kidlington.

Firms like the building and consulting engineers, CBG Consultants, have ended up having to invest thousands because of the inadequacy of the broadband service, even though they are based at Farmoor, just four miles from Oxford.

Julie Naish, the company’s business support manager, said: “Our business relies on being able to send large plans and drawings electronically and we need a good, stable connection. Our postcode is OX2 but we could only get speeds of 500kbps. The situation became even worse from 3pm when children arrived from school and went on the Internet, accessing the same line.”

The company received no assurances when it contacted BT to see when the exchange would be upgraded.

“In the end we have had to install our own fibre optic leased line, connected to our building,” said Ms Naish. But this is costing the company £13,000 a year.

Mr Pickering believes other businesses are choosing to leave Oxfordshire.

“Many businesses in the county are start-ups. They are data-intensive by nature. These businesses are ill-served at present, resulting in many moving to other regional centres where the infrastructure is better developed. As these businesses grow apace, if the services cannot be projected to deliver sufficient capacity, the incentive to stay in Oxfordshire is reduced.”

But the opportunity for catching up has already arrived, in the form of super-fast or next generation access. The question is who should take responsibility, and cover the cost of rolling it out across Oxfordshire.

Presently, it only makes financial sense for telecommunications companies to deliver super-fast broadband to larger settlements, perhaps covering about 60 per cent of homes in Oxfordshire.

BT recently announced that Witney and Thame are to get super-fast Internet access, allowing download speeds of up to 40mbps, potentially rising to 60mbps in the future.

Oxfordshire County Council is now coming under pressure to head a partnership with businesses and providers to ensure Oxfordshire gets the required infrastructure to serve the whole county.

Mr Elles expressed disappointment with the response so far from the leader of Oxfordshire County Council, Keith Mitchell.

The Conservative MEP said “This should be right at the top of the county council’s agenda. The response that I have had to the suggestion of such an initiative from the leader has been zero. Whenever I have tried to contact the leader about this issue, I have had no reply. What is needed is a digital strategy for the county to have full coverage by 2011. What we need is leadership.”

The county missed the chance to become one of four pilot areas announced by Chancellor George Osborne in his spending review last week.

The projects will be in the Highlands and Islands, North Yorkshire, Cumbria and Herefordshire, which will serve as models for how the public and private sectors should collaborate to build high-speed broadband networks in rural Britain.

The county council’s deputy leader, David Robertson, said he had, in fact, been put in charge of seeing how improvements could be brought about, with plans for a working partnership being created with businesses, providers, and public sector organisations, such as the local NHS.

He said: “We are developing a plan to put in a bid for Government funding before Christmas. We have to make sure the profile of Oxfordshire is raised and we go for any Government funding that is available.”

Mr Robertson has been encouraged by Wantage MP Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture and Communications, who stressed the Government’s commitment to driving fast broadband into areas where commercial investment alone will not deliver it.

The Government, after rejecting the former Labour administration’s plans for a telephone tax to fund super-fast broadband, has instead chosen to take money from the BBC licence fee.

Mr Osborne said the BBC would contribute £530m from its licence fee to super-fast broadband by 2015, but the total could rise to £830m by 2017.

Mr Vaizey said: “We want to see super-fast broadband rolling out in the countryside at the same time as it appears in towns.

“We shall support measures that will lead to opening access to BT’s physical infrastructure and other levers that could reduce the cost of installing new infrastructure.

“We also recognise that mobile coverage is equally important. Operators remain committed to working with Government to address the issues of coverage.”

Only, Mr Vaizey, it might be best not to contact them by mobile, at least when out and about in your Oxfordshire constituency.