East Riding Council (Yorkshire), an area that often scores poorly in UK broadband penetration tables, has begun to put pressure on BT with a view to bringing next generation fibre optic broadband services to the area. The move follows a recent meeting of the Council's Overview Management Committee, which highlighted the areas woeful broadband performance.


The proposed solution, agreed by members, was to ask BT if and when the area is likely to benefit from the operators forthcoming next generation fibre optic broadband services. BT's response was naturally unspecific and claimed that a comprehensive list of areas to benefit from its fibre optic network had yet to be announced (well that's not quite true - here's one and here's another).

However we doubt BT is going to be enticed into an area like East Riding unless the council shows a greater willingness to help make it economically viable. Merely asking BT is only going to result in the usual PR spin; a more proactive approach is often needed because, without wider government support, BT can only push the technology so far. It’s not exactly swimming in spare cash right now.

In the short term urban locations will always be more attractive for next generation deployment than remote and rural ones, though the service will eventually expand outwards to more locations.