Fortunately, they had the good sense to shop around and were subsequently given an estimate of £50,000 by another company, Rutland Telecom, to upgrade the copper wire line from the telephone exchange with fibre optic cable to receive super-fast broadband.
The new broadband scheme for rural Wales, funded by the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG), is aimed at giving each household or business a grant of up to £1,000 to assist with the installation of a broadband. Therefore, if every home in Erbistock comes on board, the cost will be covered and the village will be fully online by October.
With many other rural areas in Wales being in a similar position, this model demonstrates how a demand-led approach can empower communities to find solutions for themselves and supported, on a case by case basis, by WAG
However, it also calls into question the “top down” approach of one of the key initiatives within WAG’s new economic strategy.
As some of you may be aware, Ieuan Wyn Jones announced, back in July, that the vast majority of grants to support small businesses would be abolished. Instead, the funds would be diverted to create a £240 million “next generation” broadband infrastructure for Wales by 2016.
As I have said before, investment into critical new technologies can make a real difference to the productivity of businesses and there is certainly a case for extending the current broadband provision away from the main industrial urban and localities to the more deprived communities and those rural areas which still depend on dial up modems to access the internet.
However, the indications are that WAG has only been in discussions with the major telecom providers in Wales, which suggests that the price tag put forward for their broadband programme may be too high.
Certainly, the case of Erbistock suggests that WAG may be paying over the odds for a new broadband system if it only works with a small number of large telecoms companies.
Hopefully, WAG is currently exploring all the options, including giving direct grants to communities and businesses to access the cheapest broadband option in a competitive process. As the villagers of Erbistock have demonstrated, it could be a more cost-effective alternative to merely giving multi-million pound contracts to a few selected companies to provide expensive broadband solutions across Wales.
