Rural not spots to be tackled by assembly

4:30pm Saturday 27th December 2008

Two rural villages in Pembrokeshire are among the broadband ‘notspots’ to be tackled under a Welsh Assembly contract with BT.

Work will start immediately to deliver the broadband service to the communities of Reynalton and Saundersfoot, together with Llanpumsaint and Bronwydd Arms in Carmarthenshire, Cilcennin in Ceredigion and Gwytherin in north Wales.

Completion of the work, as part of the Assembly’s Regional Innovative Broadband Support (RIBS) contract with BT, will see more than 1000 residents and businesses experience the benefits of a broadband service for the first time.

Plaid Cymru AM Nerys Evans, who represents mid and west Wales and is chairman of the Assembly’s cross party group for broadband in rural Wales, said: “When you consider that only six villages throughout Wales will be receiving broadband in the new year, it’s fantastic news that two of those are here in Pembrokeshire.”

Since the RIBS contract was set up in 2006, all exchanges in Wales can now handle broadband. however, the distance and landscape between some end users and the nearest exchange left some ‘notspots’ out of the loop.

Residents in Saundersfoot and Reynalton revealed in questionnaires the extent to which the lack of broadband connection was effecting local economy. For many, the option of working from home was impossible and businesses were having difficulty keeping in touch.

Deputy First Minister Ieuan Wyn Jones said: “It is vitally important that businesses and families have good access to broadband in all parts of Wales.

”One of the issues we need to tackle is that it’s only possible to identify a notspot when someone tries to order a broadband service and fails to receive it.” Mr Jones is now urging anyone who is currently unable to get broadband to register on www.bnrw.

org.uk. Details of when people in these areas will be able to order broadband will be published on the RIBS pages of the Welsh Assembly website.