MP Kevin Hollinrake called for more investment and a wider use of alternative superfast broadband solutions to solve the communications crisis in rural communities at the official opening Beeline Broadband’s new premises in Brawby on 1st April.
The company describes itself as “a community-focussed” broadband provider, specialising in getting high-speed wireless Internet to people living and working in Ryedale. Beeline was started 13 years ago supplying a handful of users in Newton upon Rawcliffe. Gradually Beeline’s network has grown and their geographical area now extends from Ampleforth to East Ayton near Scarborough.
Kevin Hollinrake, MP for Thirsk and Malton, is committed to ensuring that even the most rural households and businesses in the constituency are connected.
“This has been a major priority for me since I was elected in May 2105. I will continue to press for improved access and for funding to deliver the roll out of Ultrafast broadband for rural areas. The future proofed ‘fibre to the premise’ (FTTP) roll out is pitifully behind other countries (2% in the UK compared to 60% in Spain). It is vital for our economy and to keep young people from leaving the area.
I have spoken in the House on the matter and was one of those who pushed for a break up of BT and Openreach to accelerate this important next phase. Ofcom's preferred solution at this time, however, is to require Openreach to open up access to its ducts and poles to encourage competition from third party operators. I will follow developments closely to see how effective this is in practice and will not hesitate to call for more action if we do not see the improvements that are clearly needed.
4G rollout is improving with the four main mobile networks investing £5 billion in the UK communications network, guaranteeing 90 per cent of the UK's landmass will have mobile reception by 2017. Alongside other programmes, this will ensure that 98 per cent of people will be able to get 4G mobile coverage by 2017.
We do need to be a world leader in the development of 5G to ensure that everybody can benefit from good voice and text coverage. The Government's commitment in this area is demonstrated by its announcement of a £1 billion investment in full-fibre broadband and trialling 5G networks as part of the 2016 Autumn Statement.
Through the Digital Economy Bill currently before the House of Lords, the Government is reforming the Electronic Communications Code, to better regulate the relationship between communications operators and landowners. This should deliver improved coverage in rural areas through greater investment and faster rollout of mobile and broadband infrastructure. Ultimately, I think we should be investing more in fibre and mobile networks and forcing BT to use wireless to get to hardest to reach areas.
EE is rolling out a number of new masts in the North York Moors National Park, but we need to understand timescales and am pressing for plans to be brought forward.
There are temporary solutions available and anyone suffering from poor connections should contact my office.”
Speaking after their office opening Selwyn Jones from Beeline said,
“Saturday proved to be a great day. We really appreciate Kevin taking the time to come to Brawby Grange to open our new office, ‘The Hive’. We are very successful in supplying a fast, reliable service to areas which suffer from slow and non-existent broadband. Offering reliable symmetric connections of up to 30Mbps, we enable rural and town based customers to communicate with friends, shop online, and work from home. To support the growing demand for our services we have recently invested in new office premises and increased the size of our team.”