Budget for superfast broadband won’t stretch to cover Melksham

WILTSHIRE Council has announced that by March 2016, 91% of premises in the county will receive superfast broadband, but large parts of Melksham are not on the list.

More than 60,000 homes and businesses in Wiltshire now have access to fibre optic broadband thanks to the Wiltshire Online project, however for some areas in Melksham there are no plans to upgrade the infrastructure which is required for superfast broadband.

Cllr Jon Hubbard said,   “I’ve been fighting for superfast broadband in Melksham for so long and I’ve always hit a wall when trying to get answers from Wiltshire Council. It’s a scandal that Melksham is not on the list of towns but there is a reason, a reason that Wiltshire Council fail to tell anyone about.

“There are areas of Melksham where the properties are exchange-only line. The problem with EO properties is that they are connected directly to the exchange and there is no  cabinet between the property and the exchange to upgrade with fibre cabling. This is unfortunately why superfast speeds cannot be reached by these properties.

“I’ve asked Wiltshire Council many times, how many homes in Melksham are exchange-only lines, but I’m yet to get a response.”

A spokesperson for Wiltshire Council said, “We’re not in position to tell you how many premises are exchange-only lines in Melksham.  However we can confirm that we can and do upgrade EO lines as part of this project and so this does not in any way preclude a premises from our deployment.

“If a postcode is not currently planned to receive fibre broadband under phase 1 or phase 2 of the Wiltshire Online programme, this is not because the area was not factored into our plans, or because we did not understand the number of premises there, but because the council’s strategic decision is to deliver fibre broadband to the greatest number of premises for the budget available.

“To achieve this the roll-out design is based on not just one factor but a combination of several factors such as existing infrastructure, speeds already received, number of premises in the area and distance of premises away from the infrastructure.

“Other roll-out designs were considered such as prioritising specific communities or the most rural areas but the roll-out becomes less efficient and more costly and ultimately reduces the number of premises we can provide a service to within the available budget.”