MONMOUTH MP David Davies has welcomed the news that homes and businesses in the Abergavenny area are to get access to ‘super-fast’ broadband.
Abergavenny is among a further 178 exchanges BT has added to its £2.5bn roll-out of fibre broadband, with upgrades due to be completed next year. Previously announced exchanges covered by the investment include Usk.
BT’s local network business Openreach is aiming to make super-fast fibre broadband available to two thirds of UK premises by the end of 2014. The plan is to deliver broadband speeds of up to 40 megabits per second and these will roughly double in 2012. The current average broadband speed in the UK is 6.8Mbps.
As Chair of the Welsh Affairs Committee, Mr Davies has been leading a parliamentary inquiry into broadband in Wales. While he commended BT for making “tremendous strides” with its fibre programme, he stressed there is still “a long way to go”.
“Regrettably, Monmouthshire has been badly served by broadband to date and this is an issue of real importance locally,” said Mr Davies.
“Indeed, many areas have no broadband at all. Monmouthshire is home to a thriving rural economy, with food and agri-businesses, online retailers, industrial manufacturers and farming and tourism businesses all desperate to exploit improved digital connectivity. Yet the lack of broadband communications is stifling their ability to grow and develop and, for many, super-fast broadband roll-out remains a distant reality.
“The goal of improved broadband performance across Monmouthshire is progressing at a positive rate thanks to investment from BT and other service providers, but it is vitally important that our rural areas are not forgotten and left behind”.