Council’s £300,000 bid to boost digital connectivity in rural Derbyshire

The county council’s Cabinet approved its Derbyshire Digital Connectivity Strategy at a meeting on July 25 along with the use of an initial £300,000 from a Government-backed Superfast Gainshare Fund to help rural areas particularly parts of the Derbyshire Dales and the High Peak.

A council spokesperson stated: “The Council recognises the importance of good digital connectivity across the county – not just the need to improve broadband access, speed and reliability for homes and businesses across the county but to ensure rural and remote locations are able to enjoy the same level of connectivity as urban areas.”

Residents and businesses have become more reliant on digital connectivity and the council has recognised changes in working patterns with more home working after the Covid-19 pandemic and the need to support schooling, retail and council operations with more online transactions that need reliable and speedy digital networks.

The council says it aims to achieve as close to 100per cent broadband coverage across the county and it has been working with the Government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, and BT’s Openreach to deliver its Superfast programme.

Superfast Programme contracts have allowed the council to receive Openreach revenue and approximately £1.8m is expected to be returned to the council from the Gainshare Fund on the first contract and the second contract will continue to yield less significant Gainshare payments.

Between 2014 and 2016, the council helped to improve broadband access to over 90,000 homes and businesses across Derbyshire under a £13.5m Superfast contract, and a second £10.4m Superfast contract with Openreach between 2016 to 2023 resulted in over 25,000 premises receiving better broadband.

Combined funding for both these contracts resulted in 120,412 premises receiving an improved broadband service including 109,838 which exceeded the Superfast download Speed target of 24Mbps.

However, following the end of this programme, an estimated 7,500 business and residential premises in the county still have poor broadband with download speeds below 24Mbps when the UK average broadband download speed in March, 2023, was 69.3mbps and 3,000 of these only have access to download speeds below 10 Mbps.

But the Government is also implementing £5bn Project Gigabit to deliver improved access to broadband allowing hard to reach communities across the country to access lightening-fast 1,000Mbps or 1Gbps or more gigabit capable broadband with a £4,500 Rural Gigabit Voucher Scheme for struggling communities where there are no upgrade plans from private providers.

It is estimated that around 49,000 premises across Derbyshire have no gigabit network infrastructure and none is likely to be developed within three years but an estimated 23,000 residential and commercial premises in Derbyshire will benefit from Project Gigabit, however, there remains a risk of some communities still being left behind.

Out of 347,000 premises in Derbyshire 97per cent have access to Superfast connectivity, three out of eight Derbyshire districts are below the UK average for full fibre availability, seven out of eight districts are below average for gigabit availability and Derbyshire Dales and High Peak are the lowest of both with rural areas proving more expensive to connect.