A million rural homes will finally get broadband upgrades under new deal between Government and BT
Ministers poised to announce deal forcing telecoms giant to upgrade speeds for ‘forgotten’ 5% of the nation by 2020
MORE THAN a million rural homes will finally get broadband upgrades under a new deal between the Government and BT.
Ministers are poised to announce a deal forcing the telecoms giant to upgrade speeds for a “forgotten” 5 per cent of the nation by 2020.
Under the agreement, BT will extend a Universal Service Obligation ensuring speeds of 10 megabits per second to the rural homes.
It may even use satellites to connect remote houses.
A deal over how to pay for it is yet to be agreed but sources told the Sun an announcement was imminent.
It may be announced as early as tomorrow –when BT is due to deliver financial results to the City.
BT Openreach chief Clive Selley earlier this month said: “I want to deliver decent broadband to all of the UK.”
Sources in Westminster claim the firm is acting because of the very real threat of legal action by Ministers.
BT’s Openreach network business has received nearly £2 billion of taxpayers cash to give 95 per cent of UK households superfast speeds.
Last month, consumer group Which? found that the average broadband speed in 12 local authorities still failed to hit the average 10Mbps threshold.
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The Orkney Islands, Shetlands and Highlands were ranked the worst for broadband speeds – at just 6.3Mbps.
The London boroughs of Southwark, Westminster, Lambeth, Hackney and the City of London were all also found to be below the average UK download speed – of 17Mbps.