There has been alot in the news recently regarding broadband speeds and the governments aim to increase the speed for every one, which raises the debate in rural communities who struggle to get a broadband connection at all let alone a superfast 20meg connection.

The article below is from Warwickshire County Council who are working in partnership with Coventry and Solihull councils to secure funds from central government:

The synopsis of the article is please follow this link and complete the survey:

www.cswbroadband.org.uk

"Sign up for faster broadband

The public are being urged to join the regional campaign
for faster broadband speeds by signing up to a survey on
internet connectivity.

Warwickshire County Council, in partnership with Solihull
and Coventry councils, has been allocated £4.07m by
Government for better broadband in the area.

The Government grant needs to be match-funded by the local
authorities, and the private sector is also expected to
invest a considerably larger amount to ensure that all
properties achieve speeds of at least 2Mbps and that 90 per
cent of properties achieve at least 24Mbps by the end of
2015.

Cllr Helen Walton, Warwickshire County Council’s
spokesperson for the Communities Group, said: “Faster
broadband will bring about a step-change in everyone’s
lives. The many benefits include the ability to work from
home, mobile access to health and care facilities, and
improvements in doing business such as less travelling and
using ‘cloud’ computing.

“There are so many new technologies which just a few years
ago were unthinkable but which are available now –
providing you have a fast enough internet connection.”

In order to encourage the private sector to invest in
broadband, Warwickshire County Council must demonstrate
that it will get a return on the money and that people will
actually use the service. To achieve that aim, two
questionnaires have been set up - one for businesses and
one for residential use. If you work from home please
complete both – just because a building does not have a
sign over the door, it does not mean that there is no
business activity inside! The survey can be found at
www.cswbroadband.org.uk

In addition, the county council is recruiting local
champions to promote the project within their own villages
and to encourage others to sign up. Anyone interested in
becoming a champion or requiring further information about
the project, can email broadband@warwickshire.gov.uk"