William Graham (Conservative AM for South Wales East) responding to the announcement that Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) will begin its work today to roll-out next generation broadband across the UK.
“I acknowledge the necessity for high-speed broadband access to the Internet for our businesses realise their maximum potential and allow for social interaction and the provision of on-line services”.
“In welcoming that the BDUK will drive forward the Universal Service Commitment to deliver 2Mbps to every household by 2012 and will manage the spend of the £1billion Next Generation Fund to deliver next generation broadband to 90% of the country by 2017 – we need to remember that for many communities in Wales do not have access to a broadband service”.
“There are communities less than 5 miles from Newport City centre who cannot access broadband, notable the areas surrounding St Brides, Peterstone and Redwick”.
“The ‘not-spot’ areas detailed by E-wales indicate that there are 6 communities within Newport, 4 within Torfaen and 30 within Monmouthshire which have no broadband service”.
“Earlier this week during the Assembly’s “Deep Rural Localities Report” highlighted that many of our rural areas still have poor TV and mobile phone reception, in addition to no broadband service”.
“It is imperative that we ensure everyone in Wales has proper access to these services, in addition to enhancing these services for our communities”.
