A YEAR long attempt to get superfast broadband in a dale village has ended in failure.
Frustrated residents in Boldron will have to wait almost another year to find out if they can get faster broadband speeds through Digital Durham after a scheme through Openreach proved unviable.
Currently people in the village get about 0.8 megabits per second (mb/s) through their landlines and some in the village cannot get mobile broadband because the signal is too weak.
Iain Baxter, who had hoped to use a government voucher scheme to provide cash for Openreach to install new lines and cabinets, was forced to abandon the plan last week.
He said Openreach’s terms and conditions had made the project unfeasible.
However, Openreach said it is keen to work with people in the village to help them get faster broadband.
Mr Baxter explained that OpenReach would only carry out the work as long as a contract was signed with a legal entity representing the village.
This legal entity would be responsible should any of the recipients of a government voucher fail to meet their obligation to sign up to a 12-month contract with a service provider once broadband has been installed.
Government vouchers are worth £1,500 for a household and £3,500 for a business.
Mr Baxter said: “No one in their right mind would put their hands up and say ‘I’ll be the legal entity’.
“Understandably the parish council cannot withstand this risk and, on a personal level, I am not prepared to underwrite that risk and doubt anyone else in the community would be prepared to act as a legal entity under these conditions.”
Now he hopes that the Digital Durham scheme, which has already provided superfast broadband to many rural communities through two previous rounds of funding, may help.
He said: “They are currently awaiting the result of another funding application via Defra. The outcome of this application should be known by April 2020 at which stage, if successful, the areas to benefit from this funding will be established mid-2020. Boldron is definitely in scope as a rural community with inadequate broadband speeds.
“But there are numerous communities which also qualify so Digital Durham are unable to categorically state whether or not we will be included in the next scheme of fast fibre installation.”
A spokesperson for Openreach said: “Under our Community Fibre Partnership (CFP) scheme, Openreach has committed to cover the majority of the cost of building full fibre broadband to Boldron, with the community covering the remainder. Their contribution can be paid for using Government vouchers as long as the majority of people benefitting sign up to a service with the provider of their choice.
“We recognise that there is a risk that not all homes and businesses do sign up, but we make the terms of the scheme very clear right from the outset, and offer advice and support to communities seeking to set up a legal entity.
“More than 1,000 communities across the UK have signed up to these terms and, as a result, we’re delivering faster, more reliable broadband to more than 100,000 homes and businesses. We’re keen to proceed with connecting these 45 premises in Boldron.”
