Taunton and Wellington MP Gideon Amos met with Telecoms Minister, Sir Chris Bryant, on Wednesday to call for support for people who have been hit by broadband provider Airband’s decision to pull out from large parts of his constituency.
The meeting was also attended by other Somerset MPs whose constituents have also been affected.
In 2020, Airband was contracted to deploy full fibre broadband in rural areas of Somerset West and Taunton, parts of Sedgemoor and East Devon, as well as areas of Mid Devon, South Hams and Teignbridge.
However, in October, Airband stepped back from its earlier commitments. As a consequence, it will now deliver full fibre to 27,171 premises rather than 55,493.
The government has recently signed a contract with BT Openreach, covering up to 37,000 premises across Somerset and Devon.
Mr Amos said afterwards: “I pressed the case for areas in the Blackdown Hills, around Ruishton and Wellington when I first met the Telecoms Minister just before Christmas.
“He then promised a new ‘Project Gigabit’ contract with BT Openreach – that’s recently been announced and is intended to bring gigabit speed broadband to areas like Somerset with lower-than-average download speeds”.
“At yesterday’s meeting, I challenged Sir Chris and the Project Gigabit Programme Director present on when the Taunton and Wellington communities abandoned by Airband will be given connection dates under this new Openreach contract.
“We were assured these areas would be programmed within the next few months and definitely before the end of the year.
“I’ve also asked Somerset Council to put pressure on Airband to communicate their revised plans to residents and businesses which remain in the Airband contract”.
“Accessing your bank account, doing your job or running a business – they all necessitate a decent broadband connection. It’s an essential utility nowadays and people have waited far too long for the promised connections.
“I’ll be bringing broadband rollout in Taunton and Wellington up in Parliament again regularly to keep the pressure up on government, on Openreach and on Airband.
“Companies have failed to keep parishes and local communities up to date – the service they’re getting needs to be better”