Dartmoor residents could wait years for better broadband

Gigabit contract covers 500,000 premises

There are fears that Dartmoor could wait years for broadband improvements.

Broadband connectivity across the moor or the lack of it was the top issue for parish councils when recently surveyed by Dartmoor National Park Authority.

But the area could be “at the back of the queue” in a new contract being rolled out across Devon and Somerset, chief executive of Dartmoor National Park Authority Kevin Bishop told an audit and governance committee this week.

He said Dartmoor is in a type C contract for ‘Project Gigabit,’ the government’s programme to enable hard-to-reach communities to access fast, reliable gigabit-capable broadband.

Type C is a sole supplier contract covering up to 500,000 premises for areas with insufficient market interest for smaller projects, or where areas have been removed from previous plans.

Dr Bishop said the contact area covers the South Hams up to North Devon and  into Somerset and he believed the easier-to-build locations would take priority.

“Dartmoor will not be one of the easy ones, and we might be at the back of queue and not see any improvement through that contract which is five-to-seven years, so that’s a big delay.”

He said the park authority had partnered with East Cornwall-based Wildanet which “at their own risk” had helped to developed a proposal for a digital national park in both gigabit broadband and improved mobile connectivity they promised to deliver within two years.

But discussions with government agency Building Digital UK (BDUK) about this stopped when Open Reach was awarded the Project Gigabit contract just before the general election last year.

Dr Bishop said the park was not consulted over this and had yet to receive any details about Dartmoor’s build-out proposals, despite asking. He had raised his concerns with Mary Creagh, minister with responsibility for national parks.

He said better digital infrastructure would help with visitor and environmental management, and “certainly deliver economic growth” in the park. He believes broadband across Dartmoor is “not in a good situation”.

DNPA member Peter Smerdon said rural broadband seemed to be “completely forgotten” and he hoped that the new Devon County Council, together with Dartmoor National Park Authority, might be able to shake up “the woeful position” of the digital national park plan.