Poor internet speed in Devon effecting local businesses

MPs and Exeter Diocese urged to help support broadband provision for rural communities

Further support is to be requested from local MPs and Exeter Diocese to improve poor broadband speeds in East Devon.

East Devon District Council’s Scrutiny Committee has welcomed the hard work and progress made by the Talaton Broadband Committee, which has sought to find a local solution to the poor broadband speeds experienced by users in the area.

Cllr Roger Giles, the chairman of East Devon’s scrutiny committee, said: “The provision of reasonable broadband speeds is vitally important in East Devon for residents and businesses.

“There is a particular problem in some smaller rural communities and the Scrutiny Committee is very keen to overcome this by promoting the excellent Talaton self-help example and to be innovative by, for instance, working with church authorities. Many rural communities with poor broadband speed do have church towers, which could possibly be used to achieve a much better service.”

The Broadband Committee has worked with and signed up 120 residents to the Connecting Devon and Somerset voucher scheme. With infrastructure in place at the Exeter Science Park, Talaton residents are now experiencing broadband speeds of 20 to 25MB/s.

In the meantime, a mailing list has been set up for anyone interested in the future of the scheme and individuals on this list will be updated in parallel with the wider press announcements.