Superfast Broadband on the Horizon

This photo is 'The BT Vehicle for Change' parked for the day in Milton Park, nr. Didcot which was hosting a number of presentations on how to tackle the challenges of the future with new technology and faster broadband.  This is very much part of the OxOnline project which is being rolled out all over the county.  I went along to see what I could find out.

On 16 August Broadband Delivery UK announced that Oxfordshire would be allocated £3.86 million to provide faster broadband speeds in rural areas up to 2015. Oxfordshire will be able to draw down this funding on completion of an agreed Local Broadband Plan.  This means there will have to be a robust business and financial case for the building of superfast broadband infrastructure in our rural areas. £3.86 million is clearly not enough to provide the infrastructure required so the County Council and the private sector will need to provide additional funds in order to make the project viable. Work is on-going to identify where this additional funding is going to come from.

Locally, many people in Grove complain to me about their broadband and how slow the speeds are, indeed I suffer from this myself.  I have been told that this is because Grove is some miles distance from Wantage where the exchange in based.  I was informed today that the plan is to extend the network to the boxes in the various streets which should make for faster broadband locally.  It is also the case that we do have competition in the area so there are several providers who can supply broadband locally - it is a matter of shopping around for the best deal.

Another innovation I heard about today was regarding V Pods which are supposed to be a new way for the public to access services through a number of outlets via  libraries, colleges, schools and other public places.  This is an extension of the one-stop-shop - a virtual connection to a service provider basically - too complicated to explain here in detail, but I am sure it won't be long before we are all aware of this new idea!