Shropshire Council today announced that superfast broadband will reach more villages and rural hamlets in Shropshire. That’s very good news, but it’s a partial picture.
This is the picture for Bromfield that’s given by the council’s Connecting Shropshire project:
This map shows Bromfield parish as having superfast broadband available from spring 2015. That’s not quite right.
This service will be only be available to the main village and a short way beyond. It will not reach most of the hamlets and farms across Bromfield parish.
The superfast connections that are planned will be provided from a single cabinet in the village. That will serve businesses such as the Food Centre well. It is unlikely to be much help to people who struggle to get any internet connection at all on the farms and hamlets towards the Mortimer Forest, Whitbatch and High Walton. Mobile phone signals are also rubbish in those areas.
We increasingly rely on broadband for business, education and entertainment. In the near future, we are also likely to rely on the internet for healthcare. We must put more effort into mobile broadband to connect our remoter settlements that copper and fibre broadband will never reach.
Mind you, you can’t get 4G mobile coverage in Ludlow, let along out among the farmsteads. So I’m not holding out much hope that in the next few years.