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Lyddington in Rutland is part of the land that Digital Britain forgot: big telecoms firms have refused to lay fibre optic cable to it that would give it high-speed broadband. So its 400 residents have clubbed together, raised £25,000, and loaned the money to Rutland Telecom, which will install it later this summer. Now there are plans to introduce the technology to more isolated villages in the area.
The lack of broadband in rural communities is becoming a growing economic issue. Last month communications minister Lord Carter suggested there was "certainly 25-30% of the country where there will be no economic case for building a next-generation fixed network".
"What we are doing is highly significant," said Rutland Telecom's managing director, Dr David Lewis. "There is no reason for communities to be defeatist. The potential now exists for any village to do this."
As long as homes are not far from a telephone exchange, they can receive decent broadband service with little new technology needed. In densely populated areas companies such as BT or Virgin are prepared to lay modern fibre-optic cables to homes, which can handle the vast amounts of internet data traffic that will be needed in the future, but they believe such installations are not cost-effective for smaller communities.
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