Local residents have raised concerns about the standard of the broadband rollout in certain parts of County Durham.

The Teesdale Mercury carried out a survey of 24 households in the area, discovering a significant variation in loading speeds and frustrations among rural residents regarding their lack of connection.

Across the rest of the UK, the average broadband speed is 17Mbps, but many people in County Durham were only experiencing 1.9Mbps.

In addition, a significant number of rural homes were unable to complete everyday online tasks as their connection was far too slow.

However, Head of ICT at Durham County Council Phil Jackman commented: "Digital Durham aims to get fibre-based broadband to every home, business and community across County Durham.

"Staindrop, West Auckland and Cockfield exchange areas are included in phase one of the Digital Durham programme with the first cabinets expected to go live in the next few weeks."

Overall, the council aims to connect 95 per cent of homes and businesses to speeds of 24Mbps or more, with the remainder set to experience around 2Mbps.

Fibre broadband is being brought to the area by the Digital Durham rollout programme, which is run in partnership with BT.

Add a comment

Comment

Your name

Your e-mail address

Comments (0)