Excitement at faster rural broadband after delay
BBCPeople living in rural areas have welcomed the news they will get ultra-fast broadband under a government contract, after months of uncertainty.
Residents of parishes near Appleby, in Cumbria, which missed out on high-speed internet in 2023, would soon have access to full-fibre broadband, provider Fibrus said.
Manager of Appleby Golf Club Jo Wood said it was exciting for the business but frustrating that it could have been delivered earlier.
Fibrus said it was on course to connect 53,000 rural properties in Cumbria by the end of 2027.
Mrs Wood said the current broadband at the golf club in the parish of Murton, near Appleby, was "hit and miss" and sometimes caused problems with card payments.
"We have to write down any transaction that we make during that time and input it, which can be quite time-consuming," she said.
Mrs Wood said a better internet connection would allow the club to invest in digital signage, allowing golfers to input live scores.
Fibrus is delivering the government's Project Gigabit in Cumbria, which uses government subsidy to bring full-fibre broadband to parts of the country that are hard to reach.
The government previously said the project would serve 60,000 properties in Cumbria, but Fibrus said some of those had not been confirmed and the total would now come to 53,000.
The chairman of Murton Parish Council John McDarren has campaigned for the area to get better broadband, and said he was still "sceptical" and wanted to ensure all the properties in the parish would be connected.
He said the area was on the verge of getting high-speed broadband through a different provider in 2023 under a government voucher scheme, but the project was cancelled.
Rural areas 'missing out'
The Project Gigabit contract in Cumbria was previously due to be completed by the end of 2026, but has been put back to 2027.
Chair and founder of Fibrus Conal Henry said the company was "very focused" on delivering the new timeline.
But he said rural areas not subsidised by the government were missing out on investment because of high charges levied by Openreach to use its infrastructure for fibre-optic cables.
He said the cost was "20 times as high" in rural areas, because homes were further apart and rental payments for using Openreach ducts and poles were charged by the metre.
The cost is set by telecoms regulator Ofcom and is currently being reviewed. Mr Henry said halving the fees would free up cash to invest in rural networks.
Openreach said its prices were "cheap as chips" and that "operators underpay based on a fair allocation of costs".
The company, which is owned by BT, must allow other companies to use its network because much of it was built when BT was a publicly owned monopoly.
An Ofcom spokesperson said: "We want to continue allowing competitors to use this infrastructure."