The West Sussex County Council (WSCC) in the south of England has stepped up its campaign for faster internet services, which last year suceeded in getting 2,000 residents to fill out a survey about their views on broadband coverage. An almost identical study is now being conducted with the regions businesses.

The council claims to have been lobbying BT and other ISPs to help bring faster broadband to West Sussex and tackle the areas many Notspots, where people are unable to get broadband at all. Some of that has clearly paid off because BT recently expanded the winners of its Race to Infinity superfast ( FTTC ) broadband campaign to include the Lindfield telephone exchange.


So far the government has set aside £530m via its Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) office to help most of the country gain superfast broadband services by 2015, although the slow pace of this effort has recently come in for heavy criticism (here). In addition, by 2015, everybody should be able to access download speeds of at least 2Mbps. However, the council clearly feels that there is a risk of some areas being left behind in the superfast broadband race and thus creating a new Digital Divide.

It's probably worth pointing out that Kijoma, a fixed wireless broadband ISP (wISP), also covers a significant swathe of West Sussex with some pretty decent broadband services. Download speeds of up to 24Mbps (6Mbps uploads) are available in many parts, with some locations even being able to recieve up to 40Mbps.

There are a number of ways to fill in the survey:

* For those who have access to the internet, it is available at www.westsussex.gov.uk/broadband.

* Printed copies of the questionnaire are available from West Sussex Libraries or by calling 01243 642119.